


Incursion

by explodoboy



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Extreme AU, the Eternal Empire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-05
Updated: 2019-07-06
Packaged: 2020-01-05 00:29:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 17
Words: 39,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18354878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/explodoboy/pseuds/explodoboy
Summary: It is likely beyond reason that Homeworld has encountered other Organics in the universe, being a multi-galactic empire. It is likely that Homeworld has bitten off more they can chew at least once, and that bite could be in the form of the enigmatic Eternium... But the creators of the enigmatic Eternium seem to no longer exist, where are they now?An Eternal Empire never ends, and should be feared if they frown upon you.Previously on fanfiction.net, and will probably be updated there first when I update.Steven Universe characters will be added to the story, and I will add them to the tags if I happen to include them in a chapter.+= I have released the epilogue of Incursion! I hope you've enjoyed, but this probably isn't the end of this AU! =+< = An entire remake of Incursion is being (slowly) made, including better character development, greater detail, and a more relatable people which Iota comes from. = >





	1. Alpha: The Omega Hivemind

**Hello there! This story is composed of my little ideas & fantasy races of my own, that aren't naturally connected w/ Steven Universe at all!** ****  
****  
**These stories are composed of different alien races who are enhanced by the mysterious element "Eternium", which puts evolution on overdrive and makes ridiculously powerful lifeforms, some that become intelligent very rapidly, such as the rapid development of hyperdense brains or muscles, the exponential increase of height, and more, who are victims of Gem colonies. Most of the races depicted in these chapters will have driven off the Gem invaders due to either being too hard to kill or being assisted by… Someone else** ****  
****  
**The species in this chapter are a race of reptilian bipedals whose heads look much like oversized snake's heads, part of a telepathic hive minded organism who calls itself "Omega", but I won't get too much into detail because I don't want to bore you, or take up the majority of this chapter with this little Author's Note!** ****  
****  
**The name of the species is the Kaoldvax, but the hivemind calls itself Omega.** ****  
  


~~**This is probably going to be the largest author's note, so it won't be so big for the chapters to come.** ~~

**I lied.**

**  
** **Let us begin.**

 

* * *

 

The drone walked through the tundra, only enough clothing on to protect it's lower areas, and a simple sash to store the little food it has. It knows its destination, and it knows its mission. It is too far from the Hive Core to know what else to do, so it simply follows the final directives before it was freed from Omega's grip. 

 

Soon, the drone hears mechanical movement. It knows what is to come, and it readies a bow loosely tied to its side, a dozen arrows ready to fire. It approaches the site, and waits. 

 

Half an hour passes, and an alien enters it's sight. Green, triangular gemstone on her chest and floating extremities. She looks frail, but the legs would have enough meat to satisfy the Broodborn for 12 cycles. But it knows that there is no meat, only a necklace's worth. The drone draws an arrow, and pulls it back, knowing it will make the shot. 

 

The arrow silently flies through the air, splitting the stone into three. She doesn't even get to shout, for she is gone already. The stone falls into the floor in it's fragments, and the drone puts the pieces into the sash to satisfy the needs of the Hive Queens. The drone then hides the enhancers in the holes of the walls of the canyon, knowing it could not eat it. It races silently among the canyon,

 

Three purple drones appear in it's sight, two of them having visible targets. The other one will have to be crushed manually. Thus, it prepares to rapidly fire three of it's arrows before they see it. 

 

Two invaders worth of shards hit the floor in half a second, and a third intact stone falls three seconds later, along with two arrows who hit the poor thing. 

 

The drone retrieves two of the four arrows, the other two dulled by the impacts. The drone has nine kills left before it must go in head first. Walking up to the still living purple invader, it picks it up, carefully examining it. 

 

Then, it drops it, soon after stepping on it without remorse or hesitation. It is nothing but splinters now. The drone hears a gasp, turning around. A yellow-orange invader with a pyramid-like cut readies herself for battle, but the drone is too fast. Her shards fall to the floor with an ear-percing scream. The drone ceases its silent game, and begins the massacre. 

 

Hours later, near 2 dozen invaders worth of shards and a dead drone are all that remains, finally succumbing to it's wounds. It died for the Hive, and its loss will  _ not _ be in vain. 

  
  


**ONE YEAR PASSES FROM THIS POINT, AND A WHOLE NEW STORY AWAKENS.**

  
  


A year later, a group of 15 Drones alongside a large 4-legged creature acting as a telepathic relay to the drones March onwards towards an invader's breeding ground, the drones feasting on protein-rich meats and fruits, the relay grazing on the terrain. Once the drones finish their messy meal, they stand emotionlessly until the Relay finishes it's search for nutrition. 

 

Once all are ready, the drones, 10 armed with bows and the rest with metal spears march mindlessly towards the breeding ground, only reading themselves once they reach the edge. One Drone leads the relay a distance away to prevent it from being seen, the relay standing almost perfectly still at its destination. 

 

The Hive Mind controlled drones then move in, protecting each other as the the extension of the Hive Mind itself, the Spear drones gripping the weapons tightly, only meant to be thrown in a dire situation. The Bow drones draw one arrow each, more than enough arrows to wipe out two hundred aggressors, depending on if the drones are in peak physical condition. 

 

At the sight of a group of 7 purple invaders, the Bow drones fired a volley of 10 arrows simultaneously, raining on the victims, killing all but one of them immediately, the survivor charging and then dying to a Spear drone. The drones ignored the shards, stepping around them and marching deeper into the area.

 

The sound of the demise of the purple ones no doubt awoke the security deeper in, a dozen of the Yellow ones charging headfirst in a literal sense, only to be shards on the floor to be stepped upon by arrows, or spears for the ones who near the Bow drones, for the drones see out of each other's eyes, each being a cog in a greater machine. 

 

A half hour has passed since the drones first stepped in, and 3 dozen invaders are mere splinters to the Drones’ controller now. They have not encountered any of the Green Maintainers, which is favorable. Of course, killing the Green ones means less are able to keep maintaining the breeding ground, and thus reducing the stealing of the Hive's resources. It is decidedly neutral, then. 

 

After nearly 5 dozen have fallen, the Hive feels it's control over its drones slip abruptly, unable to sense the heartbeat of the Relay, due to it's fall at a roaming Maintainer killing it at range. Without the Hive Mind to guide the drones, they become disoriented for a moment, resulting in the death of 2 Spear drones and 7 Bow drones within mere seconds. 

 

With the tide turning, the drones cease attempting to sustain an assault, and instead aim for the greatest casualties. 

 

An hour after the raid begun, all the drones and 7 dozen invaders are dead, the mission being a failure. The Hive knows it must adapt to protect it's Relays, and takes note for later battles. 

  
  


**FIVE YEARS PASS FROM THIS SKIRMISH, THE HIVE MIND GROWS DESPERATE.**

  
  


Five years from that battle, the Hive has been feeling the control of its Orb slip, and the Hive knows it must retake what it has lost. This battle will be a shining example of what is to come, and so it must use all its resources to become the victor. 

 

Four hundred drones, armed with stolen invaders’ technology and refurbished weapons march towards what was previously a sizable Farming ground for the Hive Mind, turned into a breeding ground for the invaders. The Hive knows it must either burn it to the ground or retake it, else the invaders will only grow stronger. 

 

Nearby, ten Relay animals wander around, escorted by two Bow and Spear drones each, under the careful control of the Hive Mind. The Hive is ready, and thus the drones are too. 

 

All the drones charge in at once, moving as a singular, terrifying entity without remorse, killing the invaders left and right. There are no openings in the Drones’ collective assault, meaning there is no way to deal significant damage. 

 

Abruptly, the Hive feels 3 of its Relays die, alongside the Relay’s escorting drones, and calls in the remaining Relays. At least one must live, else the tides turn in favor of the invaders. 

 

Only two Relays return alive, only one able to efficiently transmit commands & control. This is not in the Hive's favor, and thus the uninjured Relay must hide within the center of the waves of Drones, slowing down the charge significantly. The other relay is left behind, for it will surely die.

 

With the slow advance, a few drones are picked off at first, but the horde adapts. It always does. The emotionless swarm keeps its Relay alive, securing the area for certain. The fight lasted much longer than expected, but it is nearing the end if the battle. 

 

...Until the final Relay is picked off by a Maintainer, the shot was lucky, but very unfavorable. The Hive loses connection near instantly, the injured Relay left behind acting only as a way to witness the battle now. 

 

A hundred of the four hundred drones die in the confusion after the disconnect, but recover enough to push forwards. The Drones are barely able to communicate with each other telepathically, but enough gets communicated to know what is generally going on. 

 

Hours after the beginning of the fight, the Drones barely win. Less than fifty drones left alive, but enough to keep the area secure until reinforcements arrive. The day is secure…

 

...But overall, the Hive is losing ground. Slowly, but surely. It appears the fall… Is inevitable. 

  
  


**THEIR END NEARS, DECADES LATER. BUT WHOSE END SHALT IT BE?**

  
  


Decades later, only thousands of drones remain. Hidden in a crater, the final hive drones await their fall. Soon, an Armada arrives to finish them off, but instead of accepting death, they fight until the last drone. 

 

But when all hope is lost, the ground begins to shake, and a colossal figure, buried by the terrain begins to rise from the earth below. It stands as tall as a skyscraper, it's optic looking at the invaders below. The words it speak change the tide of the Hive forever, ensuring their survival. 

 

“ARCHIC ONLINE. GEOLOID PRESENCE IDENTIFIED; PROTOCOL 14-SUBSECTION THETA ACTIVATED.”

 

The behemoth crushes the invaders beneath its feet, smacking their warships to ash like flies, and marches towards the invader's breeding sites. 

 

The battle was glorious, the behemoth annihilating those who seeked to end the Hive. Days passed, the behemoth giving no mercy, but eventually the aliens begin to run, knowing there was no way to kill the monster. 

 

Once the ashes settle, the metal guardian falls back down, once again returning to its slumber. The Drones begin wandering the world again, knowing that they are safe, and Omega remains. 

 

Now, Omega wanders the forests, breathing clear air once again. Omega knows that they will come back, and of they don't adapt, the Machine may not be there to same them again. 

 

Omega reaches a decision. The Hive must adapt to the invader's technology, and reach the stars that has always filled Omega with wonder. 

 

Yes, Omega will reach the stars. Omega will consume the invaders for their sins, and Omega will find the Machine Builders. Omega will thank them, and perhaps join them. 

 

Omega will persist. Omega will survive. Omega will thrive. 

  
  


**AND THE END OF THE FIRST CHAPTER OF OMEGA’S REACH TO SPACE ARRIVES.**

  
  


**Just here for some clarification, information that can be skipped until the next line below, for it will tell you what I've planned for the next chapter to feature.**

 

**The Green “invader” with a yellow cut was a peridot, obviously.**

 

**The 3 purple “invaders” were Amethysts.**

 

**The yellow “invader” with a pyramid-like cut was a Jasper.**

 

**The “Breeding Grounds” of the gems are their kindergartens, but the Hive Mind doesn't understand this… Yet.**

 

**The 4-legged creature acts as a sort of extension of the Hive Mind's telepathic network, and are vital to the Hive Mind in the event that a large scale mission is sent out, else the drones be unable to fight as one.**

 

**The Crater and it's importance to the Hive Mind will be explained next chapter.**

 

**The Archic is pronounced like (Ark-ic), the H bring silent.**

  
  


**WHAT IS TO COME:**

 

_ Next chapter will feature the expanding of the Omega's story; how it evolved to this point, what caused the evolution, and what the Crater means _


	2. Beta: OMEGA Expanded

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> IOTA AWAKENS.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter introduces a very special character. You will see him soon.

**Greetings, Starborn. I have returned with another chapter, this time world building… Er, universe building? Eh. Who cares!**

 

**This chapter is intended to give more information of the previous chapter's species, and also opens the opportunity for a bigger world than just a bunch of unconnected species fighting back against Homeworld.**

 

**This chapter is also going to be one of the shortest, if not the shortest. I was still trying to figure out how to get this series started. It gets better.**

 

**That is all, and now we begin the venture into the darkness.**   
  


* * *

 

Deep in the depths of space, a small stealthy spacecraft labeled the NOMAD silently appears in the darkness between worlds, a behemoth of a planet with white vegetation covering the planet below, inching towards a fallen space station, invisible to all but the little nomad. 

 

A few moments later, the starcraft docks with the silent station, and a single man walks into the cold, dead starborne grave. His stature is tall, taller than any human in all of history, yet is also frail. Bionic enhancements cover his body, mostly covered by a thin spacesuit, undoubtedly designed for maneuverability. His facial expression was cold, calculated and apathetic, yet everything else is shrouded in darkness, the only light coming from the man's helmet. 

 

He wandered the station for a few minutes, searching for something. Soon, he found his target; a glowing monitor in a dead-end hallway. The only other light in the entire station, save probably whatever is powering this enigmatic interface. 

 

Walking up to the monitor, the man's amalgam of white and cyan colors within his irises and pitch black pupils, the cyan of his eyes glowing ever slightly in a rare show of emotion from the man; content. 

 

His hands race across the device's touch interface, entering credentials lost in the current of time for so long, before a message appears upon his completion, 'WELCOME, IOTA’ would be the words in English, of it weren't something so alien to it. 

 

With apparent access to the device, the mysterious Iota begins searching through the files, visibly annoyed by the lack of undamaged files, yet when his expression turns slightly angry, he smiles, an expression that the Stars have not seen since his youth long ago, he opens a file marked 'CRITICAL FILE; OVERSEER CLEARANCE ONLY’ in another enigmatic language, and the man begins to enrich his senses with the forgotten knowledge of yesterday.

  
  


ENIGMA 417-B STATION

KAOLD AI MAINFRAME OS 14.291r7

WELCOME, IOTA.

  
  


**SPC_SCI_NAME:** Teliokaoldvact Unix

**GENERATED NAME:** Kaoldvax

 

**KEY:**

Nox Unit:  _ weight-based unit commonly used for Eternium-based compounds, equivalent to 8.2 Hundred Thousand grams per Nox unit. _

 

Telios Unit: Telepathic measure of how much information can be transferred, {SECTOR CORRUPT}

 

**SPECIES DESCRIPTION**

_ The Kaoldvax are a telepathic hive mind, similar to a Gestalt Link Conciousness, composed of a singular entity in control of nearly all drones at the same time. The Kaoldvax have co-evolved with a Delta-legged animal capable of the long ranged relay of telepathic information with effectively no delays between the sending, processing, and receiving of information.  _

 

_ Previously, the Kaoldvax were a standard hive-minded species with no interesting capabilities until the Forge of Infinity in the local Galaxy was destroyed, introducing 2.4 Nox units of Eternium Oxide (E _ _ 12 _ _ O _ _ 2 _ _ ) to the local ecosystem through a single meterorite of nearly 100% Eternium Oxide. The Kaoldvax species took over 60% of the Eternium introduced. This extreme change in Kaoldvax DNA(i) resulted in the deployment of an ARCHIC behemoth defender to prevent a Geoloid colony from obtaining the extreme amount of Et _ _ 12 _ _ O _ _ 2 _ _ present. _

 

_ It took 1,400 solar orbital cycles (relative) for the Eternium introduced to the ecosystem to become fully integrated, leaving minimal traces of it in the original crash site. This is above thr average exploitation rate, especially considering the amount that went under planetfall.  _

 

_ The domestication and co-evolution of the Teliolink Relay took 3,250 solar orbital cycles, from the first contact between the species and the partial integration with the Omega hive mind.  _

 

**PREVIOUS PHYSICAL FEATURES:**

_ Carnivorous _

_ Bipedal (Walks on 2 legs) _

_ High muscle density _

_ High Leg muscle strength _

_ Low intelligence _

_ Low adaptability _

_ Non-redundant organs (1 of nearly all organs) _

  
  


**ETERNIUM ENHANCED PHYSICAL FEATURES:**

_ Omnivorous _

_ Bipedal _

_ Extreme muscle density _

_ Balanced muscle strength _

_ Intelligence enhances Gestalt Conciousness intelligence _

_ Adaptability relies on Gestalt adaptiveness _

_ Fully redundant organs (At least two of every bodily organ excluding Brain) _

 

**PREVIOUS RELAY PHYSICAL FEATURES:**

_ Herbivore _

_ Non-aggressive _

_ Delta-legged (4 legs) _

_ Frail _

_ Chitinous skin _

_ Extreme adaptability _

_ Typically redundant organs (Redundant Lungs, Kidneys, etc.) _

 

**ETERNIUM ENHANCED RELAY PHYSICAL FEATURES:**

_ Herbivore _

_ Not fit for combat _

_ Delta-legged _

_ Thick Eternium-Chitin skin _

_ Brain has minimal protection _

_ Extreme adaptability _

_ Highly redundant organs (Redundant Lungs, Kidneys, Hearts, Livers, etc.) _

  
  


After Iota finishes skimming through the terminal, he takes out a small USB-like device, extracting the information from the computer. Then, Iota walks back leisurely to his starship. Soon, the ship undocks and races away silently from the station, only to be forgotten once again, shrouded by the sands of time. 

  
  


**AND THUS THE BEGINNING OF IOTA’S RETURN TO THE LIGHT BRINGS TERROR TO THE LESSER, AND THE FIRST CHAPTER OF THE STORY BEGINS.**

  
  


**WHAT IS TO COME:**

 

_ Next chapter will introduce another species, but making the chapter will be a tall order. (foreshadowing intensifies.) and the appearance of the Diamonds! Woohoo! _

 

_...FEAR IOTA, FOR HE WILL BRIGHT BLIGHT TO YOUR WORLDS. THE NOMAD IS GREATER THAN ALL KNOW, FOR NONE HAVE COWERED UNDER ITS MIGHT DURING BATTLE JUST YET. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the chapter being short. I think this is the shortest one, it gets better from here on.


	3. Gamma: Aegis United Tribes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> THE AEGIS WILL NOT FALL.

**Welcome back, Scions of the lost. I have not updated for a while, so I am posting this and the expansion chapter at the same time. Chapter 5 will either come tomorrow or the day after that, depending on how much I can complete.**

 

**I have decided to expand upon the story, and I just have two things to say here, the first about the species…**

 

**And a warning about the power hidden within Iota.**

 

**This species is a diamond-sized bipedal red-skinned monster from the metaphorical depths of hell, with a goat head with 3 eyes on each side of their heads, and hoof-like feet, with red skin to top it off. Oh, and did I mention they look RIPPED? Yeah, not fun to fight against. More info next chapter.**

 

**The Fifth will force Homeworld to witness the power of the Eternal ones. This shall be the first of many skirmishes, and the Ninth will bring upon the door of a people.**

 

**Oh, by the way… I am only going to do daily releases of chapters when I have at least one chapter ahead completed, and if I fall behind, I will simply release whenever I get to it. That shalt be all.**

 

**Let us begin.**

  
  


**“I see potential within you, Unix. I know that we are doomed to stagnate, for all change inevitably leads to it. You will be the guiding light Long Later, my Scion.”**

  
  


The behemoth walked amongst the forest, searching for food, harvesting great amounts of plant matter as he walks through the forest, dwarfed by his height. His leg muscles bulging slightly with every step taken, eyes watching carefully for any predator looking for a piece of his legs. 

 

What he saw next, he could never unsee. Some other life forms with beautiful crystals sticking out of them, setting up machinery in the forest's walls. He needed to get a closer look. 

 

He parted the trees carefully, revealing himself to the strange beings. Everything stopped at that moment, all freezing, the strange aliens looking shocked, but the behemoth freezing out of curiosity. He then spoke, hoping that could understand him. 

 

“Greetings, I am Ruk'Noct. Who are you?”

 

This was not what he was supposed to say, apparently, as some of the frailer tiny things begin to run away, while others pulled strange strings and sticks out of the gemstones, and some charged. The pain was minimal, but more than expected. Ruk bellowed in shock, forcing some to run, but a lot of the others to run in. 

 

Ruk stomped the little things to oblivion, some he picked up and crushed with his hands, others he threw. Soon, he was bleeding a bit, and gemstones, some in pieces were on the floor. The behemoth walked away without another thought, wanting nothing more than to get back home with his bounty, and to tell the others of his discovery. 

 

Once back at the camp, Ruk begins telling the tale of the strange beings to the others. _ “Over at the Harvesting Grounds, near the Walls of Yoct'Zakk, a bunch of tiny things are building things on the walls. They attacked me when I tried to greet them, and I was able to fight them off. We need to send in a Hunter group if they seek to harm us.”  _ the giant being said, but then a very tall female individual emerged from the edge of the camp, the Elder of the tribe walked over then spoke up.  _ “They must have been scared, Ruk'Noct. We must show we mean no harm.” _ the tallest of the group declared. None of the others would challenge the wisest of the group, not unless they were certain of their own thoughts. 

 

Ruk'Noct had no reason to disagree, but Ruk was still uncertain, so Ruk decided to compromise. “We should bring some Hunters in the event they try to harm us again, out of sight but still close enough to defend us if they refuse to listen.” The Elder seemed to find this a good compromise, so all she did was nod. 

 

Three Hunters, especially well built males with gigantic spears are called to follow the Elder and Ruk to where Ruk had found the curious belligerents, the forager feeling paranoid about the strange beings, for he has never heard any stories of them, and knowledge is important across his society.

 

Ruk knew something bad was going to happen, even if not immediately.

 

Soon, the five giants arrived at where Ruk was foraging a hour ago. The Elder beckons the Hunters away, the spear-armed guards sitting down a distance away, yet still far in earshot in the event things turn sour.

 

Ruk leads the way to the area, not only out of respect to the Elder but also partially out of fear, for he could never forgive himself if the Elder is permanently harmed in any way. Once meeting the threshold between Ruk and the aliens, Ruk pauses for a moment, before beckoning the Elder forward. The Elder then speaks up. “Ruk’Noct, why do you not lead?” the Elder did not understand why Ruk showed the standard respect until then.

 

The forager then answers her question with “I caused harm to them, perhaps they may react violently to my return if I lead the way.” and with that, The Elder parted the fragile trees, crossing the threshold, with Ruk watching carefully from a difficult to notice position.

 

The Elder gazed upon the little things below, towering over all of them by multiples, her gaze softening upon the fragile looking things, them being frozen for a few moments. With a tone that she reserves for the Brood, she speaks out, hoping for understanding.

 

“Why hello there, little ones. I hope Ruk didn’t scare you.”

 

What the Elder did not expect was the same little weapons Ruk saw earlier returning to view, with Ruk racing out of the abruptly ending forest, a wordless bellow emerging from his mouth challenging the belligerent things into assaulting his Elder.

 

They freeze, and Ruk does not advance, attempting to show restraint. The Elder taught him well, for violence isn’t meant to solve all answers.

 

When Ruk finally begins hoping that they could reach a peaceful resolution, a group of purple belligerents come together, forming a being as tall as the Elder, summoning a imposing whip. This pulls the Elder out of her optimism, calling out to the nearby Hunters in a wordless yell.

 

The moment the whip of the amalgamate tightens around Ruk, it is grabbed by a toned arm, the first of the three Hunters on the scene. Then, the second and shortest (yet noticeably taller than Ruk) slices the whip with his sharpened metal spear, the third and talles of the three, stature higher than even the Elder emerges from the thick forest, eyes hardened by centuries of hunting.

 

The three Hunters step in front of the forager and Elder, spears ready to pierce the belligerent at a moment’s notice, yet restraining themselves until the Elder lets them kill the strange being(s?)

 

This apparently wasn’t going to stop the large purple being, summoning another whip out of seemingly nothing, the Elder does not have to tell them to charge, for they have already begun. With a swift strike, the largest of the Hunters pierces the giant belligerent, accidentally turning one of the many gemstones on its body to shards.

 

The five behemoths witness the same purple belligerents fall to the ground, except one of the original missing. It does not take long for Ruk to connect to and two, then bellowing out “Aim for the Crystals on their bodies! They are the fabled Prismatic!”, to which the smallest of the Hunters simply nodded, stepping down upon one of the ones whose stone lied on its chest, ensuring that it dies.

 

The Hunters charge in, now certain of how to take down the little creatures with ease, attacking in such a fashion that they cannot near each other to combine again. Ruk leads his Elder back to the campsite, leaving the Hunters to return once they believe they will not be followed or chased.

 

Upon returning to the camp, Ruk recommends the Elder retreat to her resting spot for a short while, ensuring that he will wait for the Hunters to return. This seems to sate the Elder’s worries, and she goes to rest for another day.

 

A hour and a half later, all three Hunters return somewhat injured, yet spirits unbroken. Ruk decides to ask the Hunters what occurred when they left, and the tallest spoke loud and proud, “The little prismatics kept chasing us when we tried to head home, so we brought them to a former campsite and took them all down, but one of them took Minoris’ spear after a group of them combined, leaving Yun’Dur with a bad wound.” pointing to the shortest and the average-sized hunters, the former with a badly bent spear, and the latter with a nasty chest wound, but not wounded enough to be at risk of dying anytime in the near future.

 

Ruk finds this explanation satisfactory, and lets the hunters loose into the camp, “Majoris, I think you and the others should rest. I will be the aegis for tonight.” and with that, Yun’Dur heads off to seek medical attention, Majoris looks for something to wrap his own wounds with, and Minoris looks for the beacon to request a new spear, or perhaps just have it repaired. Minoris hates wasting.

  
  


**AND WITH THAT, WE PROGRESS TOWARDS ANOTHER DAY, A NEW VILLAGE 3 MONTHS LATER.**

  
  


Things didn't turn out how the tribal societies of the Aegis expected, the mysterious belligerents were much further spread than what was assumed, and said society realizing that the outsiders have begun killing life on the jungle planet, only to make more of their own. The leaders of the tribes made a decision to pool their resources towards ceasing this before it goes too far, and begins preparing for a full-on assault upon the invaders within the next 21 months.

 

What was to be done was obvious; instruct Elders to encourage increased Brood creation, get many weapons built, gigantic bows and metal spears alike, and train the Brood to fight. The Brood may not be fully grown by the 21 month mark, but they will still be tall and strong enough to overwhelm even a combined enemy.

 

The Aegis societies begin fortifying their largest villages, pulling outpost camps into the greatest villages, turning them into giant’s small towns, and readying all the potential fighters for combat against the 7 identified invader reproduction centers, along with investigating what may very well be the leader of the invaders, The supposed leader is as tall as a forager, with a blue skin tone and seemingly in perpetual mourning. Her stone is on her sternum, an easy target for a Hunter, yet she is obviously not on the Hunter’s world very often, but is expected to be back by the 21 month mark. It appears the stars have aligned for this date, and the survival of the Aegis society shall be guaranteed if this goes well.

 

Now all that can be done is let the cogs of society turn forwards, preparing for the day the Invaders realize the mistake they made.

  
  


**24 EARTH MONTHS AFTER FIRST CONTACT**

  
  


The day has arrived, for a behemoth of a hand flies through the skies of the Aegis’ home world, without doubt containing the fabled Leader of the legendary Prismatic that stories have been made of for so long, but instead of the Primatic descending upon the Aegis’ mortal plane to absol them from pain, they seek to end the Aegis flame for all eternity. Once the behemoth hand lands upon the terrain, the hundred give or take outpost camps surrounding the Prismatic reproduction sites spring into action at the shine of dozens of beacons floating high in the sky.

 

The gigantic hunters charge as one into the sites, taking all by extreme surprise, nearly two hundred behemoths in every one of the Primatic reproduction sites, pulling down injectors and crushing them with swift movements, shattering the Prismatic without giving them a chance to recover, and another group marching towards the landing site of the Hand.

 

The Blue one was taken off guard, which was expected by the giants, her being shorter than all the adult Hunters. The Hunters prioritize ending the lives of the vile Prismatic left and right, before only the Blue one and a tiny servant-like Prismatic standing hear the taller Prismatic. The dozen or so visible Hunters march towards the tallest Prismatic, the small one by her side retreating fearfully.

 

Then the Blue One throws a ball of something at the tallest Hunter, knocking it back a noticeable amount, yet the Hunter did not fall, and continued its march, raising a spear in the Blue One’s direction.

 

The two Prismatic ran to the behemoth’s hand, taking refuge within its metal structure. The Hunters do not call it off just yet, however. In a few moments, over a hundred behemoths come from the shadows, behemoth bows and spears flinging and denting the hull of the hand, one piercing through after a display of ridiculous strength by the strongest of the Hunters. While it is obviously not enough to even remotely hit anyone inside, it is still an impressive feat, which the Prismatic will have to mend in fear of the mighty Hunters that brought an end to their Incursion.

  
  


**THE AFTERMATH**

  
  


Now, the tribal society is unified. Conflict ended, enemies vanquished. The society of Aegis has been transformed forever, the people knowing that there is more to the world than just this one planet…

 

...And thus, the Order of Aegis rises, phoenix ascended, ready to punish the Gods of old for their sins in the form of the Prismatic incursion. The Prismatic will be punished for acting as the vessel of the Gods.

  
  


**“Voidholder Abyss, are you sure I am fit for such a great duty? I am merely one Eternal, while the Zenith still lives. What do you see within me?”**

  
  


**WHAT IS TO COME:**

_ Next chapter will expand upon the tribal society of Aegis, and more about the planet the Order of Aegis resides on, Bastion’s Grip. _

 

_ The next chapter will ALSO cover the religion of the Prismatic, but won’t tell you about what they plan to do to who they mistakenly view as their Gods of old, thanks to the space station in orbit of Bastion’s Grip being long abandoned. _

 

_ …DEEP IN THE DARKNESS BETWEEN WORLDS, NOTHING CAN BE SEEN. HIDDEN BY THE UNIVERSE'S BRIGHTNESS, THE WATCHER OF BASTION'S GRIP REMAINS, HIDDEN FROM LIGHT.  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things start accelerating soon. Get ready.


	4. Delta: Order of Aegis Expanded

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> YOUR MISTAKE WAS WAKING ME FROM MY SLUMBER.

**Ah, it’s you again. Welcome back, I have hoped you would be here again. It appears the future is set in stone, now.**

 

**Just gonna put it out there, expect the Iota visiting deep space observatories chapters to be noticeably shorter in length than the species introduction chapters, I’m always going to shoot for over a 700 word could excluding author’s notes for these, but I have no way to expand these any further without getting too boring.**

 

**It is time. Let the stars align once more.**

  
  


**“Just because the exterior is frail does not mean its interior’s potential is limited. There lies power within you that even I have difficulty comprehending, and yet I am Zenith of Zeniths.”**

  
  


Deep in the darkness between worlds, a nimble starcraft pierces through the everglow of the perpetually dying universe, traveling with speed no conscious being has witnessed before, photonic or baryonic. The little nomad inching towards it's absolute goal, coordinates entered by a timeless man. 

 

The exit of the enigmatic warp drive leaves nothing to be seen, only a dark ship on the dark side of a planet. In the distance, a slight visual anomaly only detectable by the strongest of sensors floats aimlessly across space. Target Aquired. 

 

The ship vanishes from sight, cloaked by the rest of the universe yet still there. The invisible ship drifting towards it's destination, perfectly visible to the ship's scanners. 

 

Within the ship, a hedonistic man without a visible plan gazes upon the glorious station with a smirk, a large decadent station with architecture so wondrous that it could take nothing less than an ascended people to craft during the entire lifetime of the universe, a beauty so grand that the word ‘perfect’ is simply not good enough. 

 

The ship docks with the enigmatic beauty, and the man labeled Iota walks into the station. The interior is well lit, abandoned monitors and spray machines labeled “FABRICATOR” all across the room. Iota takes no note of this, for he has a task. 

 

Iota walks apathetically, minimal care about anything in the world, he cannot distract himself from his duties. 

 

A sudden pain enters the mind of Iota, a echoing, bounding voice emitting “ENTROPIC-” yet Iota does not let himself finish that phrase. Best not defile this glorious place with cursing. 

 

Iota then sees it, a terminal unlike the others to most, but Iota knows what it is. 

 

A Black Box, information locked away from prying eyes once a station is abandoned, never to be seen until someone with the proper credentials returns…

 

Iota walks up to the terminal, and inputs a set of credentials not his own. Iota prepares to open the file of interest, the monitor greeting a man who is not present. 

  
  


ENIGMA 742-A STATION

KAOLD AI MAINFRAME 14.286r2

WELCOME, VOIDHOLDER KAOLD ABYSS.

CRITICAL FILES UNLOCKED

INCOGNITO MODE UNLOCKED

PERMISSION EDITER UNLOCKED

  
  


**SPC_SCI_NAME:** _ Eternos Aegis _

**SELF-DESIGNATED NAME:** _ AEGIS _

 

**KEY:**

Nox Unit: a  _ weight-based unit commonly used for Eternium-based compounds, equivalent to 8.2 Hundred Thousand grams per Nox unit. _

 

Class-Gamma event:  _ A planetary event which could result in the long-term damage of the planet’s ecosystem, or the death of a major species that could result in a mass-extinction. _

 

DNAi: A tri-helix molecule capable of switching on and off parts of genes or activating others

 

**SPECIES DESCRIPTION**

_ The Eternos Aegis (Aegis) are a race of extremely tall multicellular organisms originating from Bastion's Grip (Absol IV) with an advanced society for its technological level, so societally close that it would take nothing more than a Class-Gamma event to cause a planetary unification event, although the planet’s biosphere will not support this event until the Industrial or Atomic technological age. _

 

_ Previously, the Aegis were an above-size organism who were interesting enough to warrant the establishment of a Enigmatic observatory, later the Voidholder requesting an Eternium seeding site to introduce 7 Nox units of Eternium into the planet’s biosphere over 2,400 Eternis years. _

 

_ The introduction was considered to be a resounding success, the Aegis becoming one of the strongest organism genetically, only surpassed by empires who delve into their genes intentionally.  _

 

_ It appears the introduction of Eternium made the ecosystem of Bastion's Gril more resilient but also increasingly competitive, encouraging the increases height and strength of the Aegis.  _

 

_ The introduction of an ARCHIC behemoth fighter was deemed unnecessary due to the likelihood of the Aegis being more than capable of eliminating and Geoloid threats, especially once the society advances beyond the Stone Age and develops a complex language. _

 

_ After the formation of the Prismatic religion, an Eterminatus array was set up on-station in the event the on-board AI or crew believes the Aegis are about to or have given up their independence with the belief they are following their Gods, although an ARCHIC behemoth fighter is deemed unnecessary. _

 

**ANOMALOUS RELIGION**

_ Added 3,264 years after introduction of Eternium to Biosphere _

_ The Aegis formed a religion that is based around the “Prismatic”, beings made of prisms that take the sun’s light, making perfected bodies who seek to being absolution to the Aegis. This definition is very similar to the Geoloid Empire in appearance, and will be closely monitored in the event the Geoloid are detected to enter Bastion's Grip's gravity well.  _

 

_ Automatically updated 72,982 years after last update by on-board AI _

_ Planetary signatures suggest the Geoloid colony attempt established 3 Orbital Cycles ago was violently fought off, and it is likely the Aegis have become a singular planetwide government, potentially to directly engage the Geoloid empire once they reach Spatial status. Threat reduced from Sigma to Iota _

 

**ETERNIUM ENHANCED PHYSICAL FEATURES**

_ Omnivore (No taste for Meat; prefer vegetation) _

_ Bipedal _

_ Extreme height (Relative to organisms on home planet, more than Extreme to Eternal) _

_ Extreme muscle density _

_ Balanced muscle layout _

_ High intelligence _

_ Extreme Adaptability _

_ Fully Redundant Organs (All organs excluding Brain have at least one backup organ) _

  
  


**PREVIOUS PHYSICAL FEATURES**

_ Herbivore _

_ Bipedal _

_ Very high height (Relative to organisms on home planet, extremely tall to Eternal) _

_ Leg-focused muscle layout _

_ Above-average intelligence _

_ Medium adaptability _

_ Fully redundant organs _

  
  


Iota finishes reading the treasure trove of information, smiling wide at the prospect of the behemoths taking their fight to the Geoloid on their own territory, and inputs a command into the terminal. 

 

“Uplift Aegis species to FTL status ASAP, uplift protocol Sigma-9”

 

The terminal's fans whir for a few moments, before a “COMMAND RECEIVED: UPLIFT ACTIVATED.” fills the screen. Iota logs off of the machine, clearing the logs of the Voidholder's access per protocol, and returning to the NOMAD, before racing back off into space, the invisible spatial structure preparing to bring the Aegis to the stars.

  
  


**“I understand. I thank you, Voidholder Abyss, thank you for granting me the chance of guarding all our kin, for the rest of eternity. I accept the status of Finale.”**

  
  


**WHAT IS TO COME:**

_ Next chapter will feature a genocidal people who have an affinity for walls and nuclear superweapons, and the skies ringing with the might of the Eternal.  _

 

_...WORRY WHEN YOU WITNESS A BLUE STREAK CROSS THE SKIES, FOR THE NOMAD SHALL NOT, CAN NOT, AND WILL NOT FALL. ALL FALL BEFORE THE MIGHT OF THE ETERNAL.  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Push forwards. The story has only just begun.


	5. Epsilon: Fragmented Penthulan Nations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> THE XENO SCUM SHALL DIE.

**Welcome back, Starborn. Today, we are here to gaze upon a hateful species, who seeks nothing more than to cleanse the galaxy of all other lifeforms, with the exclusion of the enigmatic Eternal, who are held high as their Gods of new, destined to follow their path to absolution.**

 

**The Penthulan are an avian species, bipedal and 2-armed. They look just like the thumbnail of this fanfiction, because I’m a Stellaris nerd.**

 

**The Penthulan were uplifted when they found an Ancient Cache of Lost Technologies, advancing their people to a stage of having access to nuclear fusion as planetwide power, but not being capable of space flight just yet. What they learned of the Diamond Authority drove the Penthulan over the edge, them declaring all other life in the galaxy to be Unholy, and to be vanquished with flame and hatred.**

 

**The Penthulan were always distrustful of what the Xeno, but Eternium only made them even more paranoid, but that drove them into the age of Fanatical Purifiers was the learning of the danger of the universe at large, and the Gem Empire.**

 

**Strangely, the Penthulan worship the Eternal as their gods despite their supposed Gods being the opposite of their fanatical religious state, their power seen as fate’s hand guiding their primitive people to Absolution untold, and they know that once they reach the Stars, no one will stand in their way to meeting their Gods, and rising Eternal among them.**

  
  


**“The Zenith has fallen! Fall before the walls of flame! The Finale will salvage our hope one day, but we must rest until then! Fall, my Scions!”**

 

They were vile. All of them were, but especially these ones. The Governments of Icor knew that the dreaded Geoloids they learned from the fallen Eternal Cache had arrived. They sucked planets dry of their resources, committed genocide that would make a Penthulan proud. But that didn’t matter, the Penthulan would have assaulted the Geoloid invaders with flame regardless of their galactic status. This just made it even better, to wipe out the vile Xeno Scum.

 

It was a cold winter across the entire planet, for Icor’s star was covered by the darkness of the fallen sphere that stole a majority of the star’s light on occasion, to power the grand factories which cannot be seen from Igor. What the factories did, the cache could not divine.

 

When a hundred Geoloid descended in a group of ships, it only took 7 minutes for a nuclear fireball to soar into the sky, sending shards all across the area, to be ground to dust by hateful Penthulan children. The next group of Geoloid was immediately met with an army of vengeful Penthulan, trying their best to kill the Geoloid for merely existing on their planet.

 

Yet, somehow a large colony was established on a distant canyon not yet colonised by Penthulan, and not noticed for nearly a decade, which lead to a full-on assault on major Penthulan cities. But the Geoloid did not realize the mistake they made, for the Penthulan were so hateful at the vile Xeno that they decided the razing of their own cities is better than even touching a living Geoloid, and thus many Penthulan cities ended in nuclear fire.

 

Millions died, but the war effort only sped up once the Penthulan rage reached its height. Nothing could stop the Penthulan soldiers from charging into attempted colony camps, ever searching for the only successful reproduction seeding site that lasted for over a month without ending in nuclear fire or fine powder coursing through the wind, singing a song of defeat.

 

There were many, many battles. Until the Geoloid brought all their might to the capital of the strongest country on the planet, Penthula, the site of the Eternal’s ancient cache of technology long forgotten. This moment is when they were bathed in the light of Eternity, to witness the night of the lost wanderer.

  
  


**WITHIN THE CAPITAL OF THE PLANET ICOR, HOME OF THE PENTHULAN NATION STATES.**

  
  


Flame filled the skies as Penthulan air fighters used all their might to try to scatter the Geoloid ships, a swarm of a little over a hundred Geoloid craft annihilating the thousands of fighter jets that tried in vain to cease the assault, skyscrapers crumbling to dust crushing thousands, yet nuclear fire did not engulf the city, for it was a city of the Holy, no one would dare defile the grounds of the Eternal, no matter what.

 

One Penthulan, a veteran flying a jet rather expertly was able to finish off a weakened Geoloid craft, it shattering across the city’s floor, any crew inside to surely be crushed to a fine powder by ground forces & police. He called himself Yoct, after the last name of a great star fighter of the Holy Eternal, declaring one down, and 84 to go. He pursued instead of being chased, not giving them the chance to gang up on the little jet, retreating when more than two belligerents engaged the craft at the same time.

 

The craft flew with great agility, hitting one of the thrusters of yet another invader ship, only one more until it is doomed for a powdery death. Yoct saw seven hostiles moving in on his location; fast. Yoct flew as fast as the agile jet could go, and somehow got away with only some damage on the wings of the jet. Yoct preferred this over failure, for Yoct could fight longer. It was the beginning of the end, but Yoct would fight until the death. No, Yoct would beat the spirits of the Geoloid in Hell to death again and again.

 

Yoct skillfully moved in for another assault, targeting the about to be downed Geoloid craft, eliminating it without the need for missiles, .50 caliber rounds doing the job just fine. Yoct was certain everything was going well, becoming just a little optimistic for a moment.

 

That moment made Yoct decide to never be optimistic ever again.

 

In a few moments, Yoct’s craft flew to the streets below ablaze, leaving a trail of destruction in its path. Yoct was mere milliseconds from death, if he had not ejected himself at the very moment of the beginning of his craft’s fall to the ground he would surely be dead. Yoct was lucky to still be alive, and even luckier to see what was to come…

 

When nearly all the Penthulan fighter jets have been reduced to metal scrap on the street floors, a beacon of hope shines through the atmosphere, descending at such a rate that it could only be the Holy Ones. A sleek and dark starcraft descended from the sky, like an angel aflame with hatred unseen before. It was small and looked weak. Yet, it was so much stronger than any Geoloid could have expected.

 

The NOMAD was here, and the Eternal have come to save the day from the sinful Geoloid.

 

The Nomad rammed into a Geoloid ship, a cloud of flaming dust filling the space where the glorious Nomad once was, but soon the little starcraft came out of the fire unharmed, shielding systems acting as a bulwark of harmony. It flew faster than what inertia would allow even the ship to survive, shifting gravity itself out of the way. It let out a volley of bright yellow missiles, stalking the skies for whatever prey it could find. A barrage of projectiles only knocked the missiles a small distance from its original target, shields holding strong.

 

Upon hitting the Geoloid ship, it was turned to plasma, soon cooled by the air around, but falling to the ground as a thin liquid that could burn anything in an instant. But this was not the end of the barrage.

 

It was only the very beginning.

 

The little Nomad fired a beam of pure energy, circumference as great as the height of the nimble starcraft, obliterating all those in its path. Soon, the Geoloid fired a volley of missiles of their own, only to be split to the molecule by fast rotary lasers acting as a point defence system, then shooting upon Geoloid craft that near too close.

 

Within 30 seconds, a baker’s dozen Geoloid craft are mere ashes upon Penthula City’s streets, with the Nomad seeming to only have started. 64 Geoloid ships remain, some already fleeing in panic at the might of the Eternal.

 

The situation only seemed to get worse for the Geoloid, for the Nomad had no intent on stopping the fight. The Nomad, both an immovable object and an unstoppable force blasting nearby Geoloid into oblivion. There was no hope for them, only retreat.

 

When 24 Geoloid craft remained, it seems an order was declared to retreat, for they would need more than a mere hundred fighters to take down the Eternal’s starcraft. Live to see another day.

 

The Nomad did not chase the retreating ships, patrolling the area until the Geoloid have been gone for 15 minutes. The ship then deploys a drop pod, soon after flying away at incredible speed, only visible thanks to it being a flaming ball of plasma at its incredible speed.

 

The pod hit the grass on the outskirts of the city, waiting for a Penthulan to near, to be curious enough to find out its secrets.

 

A Penthulan child wandered to the enigmatic drop pod without caution, knowing it was a gift from the Gods themselves. The child witnessed the pod opening, revealing a block of mysterious material, another Cache of Technology, and a floating orb of some sort.

 

The orb was yellow, and glowed brightly in the near-night landscape. The child touched the divine orb, only to be filled with a nullified memory of yesterday.

  
  


**NULLIFIED MEMORY**

  
  


_ The man wandered across the stars, eons passing by since his genesis. Was he a man? They didn’t know. The shape of their body was an enigma to them, but they knew they were bipedal, and had 2 arms attached to their shoulders. The enigmatic individual wandered across his stellar wanderer, gripping a bar of food whose taste is long forgotten. It was a solid bar, or was it? I don’t know. Not anymore. My perception shifts at the star’s whim, they unable to control the memory of their demise. Or was it my demise? This is far too confusing… _

 

_ In a moment, I exert a little of my strength. I know they had to remember this, but why did they want to? I don’t know. _

 

_ The memory filled the depths of an orb, same in appearance to the one the child had touched earlier, but the child doesn’t exist yet. The Penthulan’s lineage will not exist for a long, long time. _

 

_ My head hurts at the thought of what is happening to me, not the real me, but this simulacrum of me. I know that they are no more than a nullified memory of yesterday, of a man who does not exist any more. That is certain. I don’t exist anymore. I am singing the songs of those long gone. _

 

_ I must gift my strength hidden within this orb to the one who discovers this lost thought, the Zenith’s memory must continue. That is an absolute. _

 

_ Thus, they parted with a small piece of their might, allowing another cosmic being to bask in the glory of the wonders of Eternity. I made this sacrifice for you, my Voidholder. _

 

_ Sing for Eternity, late Voidholder Nox Abyss, and long live Voidholder Kaold Abyss. _

  
  


**TIME IS BUT A DREAM, TIME IS BUT A DREAM, TIME IS BUT A DREAM, TIME IS BUT A DREAM, TIME IS BUT A DREAM, TIME IS BUT A DREAM, TIME IS**

  
  


The child became aware of her own existence again suddenly, power coursing through her veins. Knowledge of yesterday deep within, a piece of the Holy Zenith within them. She had been chosen by the Divine to bask in the glory of Eternity… She wants to remember this forever and ever! She can’t forget this!

 

In a moment, the same yellow orb was brought to existence, knowing that the nullified memory and her ascension will be preserved forever. She knew what it was called, she always knew.

 

The Memory Orb.

 

Joyously leaping back home, the young Zenith prepared to tell her parents all about how the Holy Eternal declared her the eternal protector of the Holy.

  
  


**“The Zenith’s memories shall never be forgotten, for her thoughts are scattered across the stars! The Finale will bring us the new Zenith, and show us Eternity once more!”**

  
  


**Hello again, just here to speak briefly. I understand the Nullified Memory sequence was likely** **_very_ ** **confusing, but it was intended to be that way. It’s basically a little pocket universe in this case being a linear memory, but can also be affected by outside forces, such as the brain capacity of the viewer of the memory. The simulacrum in the memory orb is also semi-self aware, depending on if its viewer is.**

 

**That shalt be all.**

  
  


**WHAT IS TO COME:**

_ Iota goes to the observatory watching the Penthulan, also explaining what happened to the Gems that were still maintaining the colony hidden on the planet. This will be the shortest time after a species has fought off the Gem invaders to the investigation of the Enigma in orbit of said species’ planet. _

 

_ A mystical element shall also be unveiled, and foreshadow the climax of the first arc of the Eternal. _

 

_...ETERNIUM IS IMPURE, AND IS EVEN STRONGER WHEN BROUGHT TO ITS PUREST FORM. ABLE TO BRING ABSOLUTION TO ENTIRE WORLDS, PURE ETERNIUM BEARS A GRAND YET SIMPLE NAME, CATal... _


	6. Zeta: United Penthulan Order Expanded

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh, holy Eternal! You shalt be our eternal light! Praise your everglow!

**Woo! A really F[ERROR] long chapter! The longest one, actually (excluding Author’s notes) at nearly 3k words! And a species expansion at that! This is plot heavy, and you DON’T want to miss it, for this will truly carve a path to chapters to come.**

 

**The next 2 chapters will be pretty normal, so don’t expect anything incredible until Chapter 9 & especially 10. Iota shall be the end of the beginning, and Kappa is destined to mark the start of a new arc.**

  
  


Floating aimlessly among the darkness, a behemoth starship, many thousands of kilometers long at a minimum lies dark in the nebula surrounding it, a tiny nomadic starcraft approaching it. The behemoth’s name lies intact on its surface, “CULMINATION”, its hull and paint looking as if it were perfectly new, despite the readings on the approaching starcraft declaring it has been out of service for 8 billion years.

 

As the little starcraft approaches the Culmination, its core becomes obvious. The ship is visibly in two pieces, a massive device which contained a singularity once in the spot where the rest of the ship would logically be, yet still structurally intact.

 

Within the underdog, Iota gazes upon the glorious starship left forgotten for a great span of time. Iota types something into his console, and begins speaking in a coarse and bounding voice.

 

“Finale Log Theta-Delta-Zeta-Iota-Nox on date 34AF873E2 post-genesis of current universe. Culmination breach ship located in attached Eternis-centered Spatial coordinates. Starship’s hull is intact, and the Phi Singularity previously stored within the Trans-Temporal Engine appears to have decayed completely. Interior state of Culmination is unknown. How the Third allowed this relic of the past fall into such disarray, I hope I never learn. Ending Log.”

 

Iota ends the audio log, entering a coordinate for the behemoth starship lying in wait, before directing the ship to dock with the Culmination nearby. The ship flies slowly and absolutely towards a near-invisible opening on the hull of the behemoth, front of the ship being pulled into the hull of the massive construct through the Nomad’s thrusters alone, the Culmination unable to do any of the work itself.

 

Iota undresses, revealing mechanical enhancements all across his body. His arms are replaced by advanced-looking bionic arms, minimalist and utilitarian in appearance. His legs have the same style, no space for athstetics. His hips are replaced with yet another utilitarian design, and his back being hidden by exoskeleton. His front-torso are relatively untouched by machine, LED-lit device on top of his heart, with detachable thin armor covering the remainder of his upper torso, looking more athestetic than functional.

 

The back of Iota’s head has exoskeleton plating running up the back of his neck, some of his long, pitch black hair obscured by the exoskeleton. A well-concealed interface with Iota’s brain allowing him to control his artificial limbs faster than a human could be able to. To his peers, he is absolutely perfected mechanically speaking. While some could say that his limbs could do better with some aethstetic plating, Iota only needs what is necessary for his duty.

 

Iota dons his suit, attaching his lower body first, then machinery installing the upper remainder excluding helmet for him. Iota dons the helmet, turning it slightly to the right to center & pressurize it. Iota enters a elevator-like device, and descends into the lower part of this starship, then walking to a very heavy blast door-airlock hybrid, proceeding to open it.

 

Once Iota enters the airlock, the first door closes. Then, the airlock rapidly depressurizes in mere seconds, the airlock’s exit door opening moments afterwards. Iota’s feet stay attached to the floor thanks to his boots being magnetic. Iota walks across a the maintenance hangar of the dark starship, light only coming from the impossibly compact flood lights integrated into his suit.

 

Iota wanders across a long, long hallway, guided by a minimap within his suit’s visor, walking leisurely towards an unknown destination, in hopes of finding what he needs to continue his plan.

 

Iota, after 15 hours of walking and multiple disgusting brick-like nutrient bars finally reaches his destination, a room labeled “CATALYZED ETERNIUM STORAGE” and a warning of a “SPATIAL-TEMPORAL HAZARD” within. Iota struggles to get in due to the power shortage across the ship, but he knows that the effort will be worth it.

 

Once the bulky door is opened, Iota rests his eyes on glass canisters full of a blue element glowing brightly without any apparent energy source other than itself, all marked “CATALYZED ETERNIUM, HANDLE WITH PROCEDURE NOX”, Iota then grabbing two of the canisters carefully, knowing this amount would be more than enough to destroy the entire starship within nanoseconds.

 

Iota walks in the direction of his starship’s location, yet looking for another room in the gargantuan ship. Soon, Iota finds his target. A room labeled “CATALYST GENERATOR”, the door being the only powered thing in the entire ship, opening swiftly to let Iota through.

 

Stepping into the room, a massive generator with a console straight ahead awaits, Iota opening the console, and then inserting the Catalyzed Eternium into the only cylinder-shaped hole in the entire room. In moments, the rest of the ship begins to light up as a very human-like yet noticeably synthetic voice announces “Power Restored. KAOLD AI Online. Zenith Cloaking system activated. Eternium Oxide Atmosphere unit activated. Welcome, Holder of the Grand Finale.”

 

Iota smiles a small amount at the hearing of the announcement of his title, knowing that he is doing his people an absolute good. Iota then speaks up, “Kaold, Transport me to the Starpilot room. Plan Delta is active.”

 

Iota does not get a response verbally, but the sound of an automaton entering the room gains his attention. The machine is extremely tall, mere inches from the roof of the hallway, yet has a few dozen meters from the ceiling of the current room. The machine is labeled “MEGATUNNELER”, Iota smiling at the teleporting machine ahead of him.

 

“Quantum Tunnel to Starmap, Automaton.” Iota says calm and collected. The machine merely nods, kneeling down and enveloping the room in a bright light, Iota and the machine gone when the light dissipates abruptly.

 

Elsewhere, Iota appears from nothingness in what appears to be a single glass table with a map of the visible universe, and more. The automaton which was right behind him vanishes in a flash of light. Iota enters the coordinates for a specific site in the universe, the Kaold AI’s voice then booming “DESTINATION: ICOR. ALL ORGANIC LIFEFORMS ENTER CRYPTONIC HYPERSLEEP OR ENTER DESIGNATED ETERNOS-REALITY SAFE ROOM.”

 

Iota takes a seat, awaiting the jump to occur to the destination. A minute passes, then five, then an hour passes, and eventually five. The ship jolts a very slight amount, signaling that the jump is complete. Iota beckons the teleportation machine back without speaking, and returns to his starship in a flash. The machine teleports back to where it came from, leaving Iota alone once more.

 

Iota undocks from the behemoth, and flies towards a very visible space station in the distance,  _ Not a good sign _ , Iota thinks. Iota readies himself for the worst, docking with the station, still in his suit.

 

Iota closes his eyes for a few moment, and pushes out the great forces within him, deep purple translucent tendrils of will appearing out of nothingness, all originating from Iota’s mind.

 

Iota enters the station, ready to fight to his destination, but finds himself surprised when he gazes upon a group of Avian creatures. They were bipedal, and looked very aggressive for one moment, before instantly falling on their knees and bowing like Iota was some God of theirs. Iota knew who they were.

 

The Penthulan.

 

“Oh, Glorious Walker of the Abyss! We are humbled witness your everglow, Holy Eternal!” one Penthulan cried out happily, the others silent in a showcase of great relief. Iota pulls himself out of his shock, and formally greets the Penthulan in his presence.

 

“At ease, Starborn. There is no time for formality at this moment. I am the Grand Finale of the Eternal Empire, holder of the Nox Protocol. We can speak on our own levels once the duty has been fulfilled, for the collective Eternal are at stake.” Iota speaks, voice booming to the Penthulan ahead of him. All the Penthulan except the previously vocal one stand up, ready for duty. The odd one out gathers their thoughts, before standing up.

 

“Yes, Holy Finale. We are forever in your service.” one of the shorter Penthulan announce, willing to go to the edge of the universe itself for their Gods. Iota internally cringes at this, saddened by the Penthulan’s adoration of the Eternal merely for appearing divine to them.

 

“I must access the logs of your civilization, learn more about you before we work together. I must ensure we all remain efficient as possible.” Iota declares, the Penthulan agreeing, this time not just because the man in front of them is a God to them.

 

“I will show you the way, Holy Finale. We have made some additions to the bottom of the file in anticipation of your kin’s arrival. We dared not defile the text itself, only add to the bottom of it.” the tallest Penthulan announced. Iota was happy to know the Penthulan tried their best to not mess with information that took great spans of time to acquire, so Iota praised the Penthulan, “Thank you, Starborn. I appreciate the sentiment, I will properly integrate the new information eventually. Until then, I leave the station to be maintained by the Penthulan Nations until-” but Iota was (respectfully) interrupted.

 

“Excuse me, Holy Eternal, if the interruption is allowed, but we are the United Penthulan Order now, thanks to your guidance.” one Penthulan worriedly corrected.

 

Iota only smiled at the knowledge. “Thank you. Well, after I leave I will leave the station to the United Penthulan Order to maintain it until we return to lead it ourselves. I am impressed with your kin’s ability to get a station into working order as well as you have done thus far. Now, I have some information to delve into. Please, continue your line of work, it must be very difficult to run a station like this, even with our technology in your hands. By the way, our largest starship is nearby, I have uncloaked it to make it easier to avoid crashing into it for your sake. Now I am off.”

 

The Penthulan got right back to work, trying their best to avoid staring at the God amongst them, but a few failed. Iota did not care much of this, they could not be faulted for their current ways.

 

Iota marched towards the terminal at the center of the station, delving into its information, Iota curious of the Penthulan decided to add, hoping that the Penthulan were able to add it as seamless as possible.

  
  


ENIGMA 742-A STATION

KAOLD AI MAINFRAME 19.371r6

WELCOME, FINALE IOTA

 

**SPC_SCI_NAME:** _ Eternos Penta Penthula _

**SELF-DESIGNATED NAME:** _Penthulan_

 

**NOTICE:**

_ The Penthulan on-board this station has added additional information to the bottom of this file, to make it easier for deletion and/or integration depending on Eternal decisions. _

 

**KEY:**

Nox Unit: a  _ weight-based unit commonly used for Eternium-based compounds, equivalent to 8.2 Hundred Thousand grams per Nox unit. _

 

**SPECIES DESCRIPTION:**

_The Penthulan are a hyper-aggressive race of avian non-flight capable bipedals with relatively high muscle strength for Eternium-Enhanced lifeforms. Penthulan society has advanced to a_ _late industrial age_ _Advanced Atomic Age, capable of nuclear fusion technology, with the strange societal evolutionary point that despite being very aggressive and militarist, a global nuclear war is extremely unlikely due to general internal communal attitudes_ _. Early Spatial Age, capable of space flight around its solar system, while not yet_ _discovering physically attainable FTL technology_ _Due to exposure to Eternal knowledge, the Penthulan are expected to achieve FTL capability within the next century, potentially decades. Penthulan are abnormally communal._

 

_ Previously, the Penthulan were the same average height as they are currently, but not nearly as physically strong as current baseline statistics. The Penthulan have always been xenophobic in nature, yet Eternium appears to have compounded on this by enhancing Penthuan fight-or-flight response. This is not a threat to Eternal citizens, however, due to the Eternos Penthulan Global Religion. _

 

_ The Penthulan were previously extremely non-communal, making it nearly impossible for them to ever reach a technological state of anything above the Stone Age, Eternium making them much more communal than before, ensuring a strong society would eventually form. _

 

_ The Penthulan’s planet was accidentally exposed to Eternium over a great scale of time due to a orbiting satellite slowly letting off 24 Nox Units of Eternium during a multi-galactic conflict with the Geoloid Empire preventing the satellite from being properly removed. _

 

_ The introduction of Eternium to Icor’s ecosystem resulted in the flora of the planet absorbing over 95% of the introduced Eternium, the flora dominating the planet’s landscape, transforming the planet into a Jungle-class planet. _

 

**ETERNOS RELIGION**

_ The Penthulan was accidentally given knowledge of the Eternal Empire, uplifting their society abruptly from a Late-Medieval age to a Late-Industrial age. This did not allow the society to begin unshackling itself from religion, their religion globally shifting to seeing the Eternal as their Gods. The religion thankfully was progressive enough in nature to allow society to slowly advance, while slowing down development enough to allow Penthulan culture to evolve organically. _

 

**ETERNIUM-ENHANCED PHYSICAL FEATURES**

_ Omnivore (High dopamine output when eating Meat, prefer Meat) _

_ Bipedal _

_ Average Height _

_ High Muscle Density _

_ Balanced Muscle Layout _

_ Above Average Intelligence _

_ Low Adaptability (Due to homogenous biosphere) _

_ Highly Redundant Organs _

 

**PREVIOUS PHYSICAL FEATURES**

_ Carnivore _

_ Bipedal _

_ Average Height _

_ Low Muscle Density _

_ Balanced Muscle Layout _

_ Average Intelligence _

_ Average Adaptability _

_ Average Redundant Organs _

  
  


**ADDITIONAL NOTES LEFT BY PENTHULAN CREW**

_ After the invasion of the Geoloid, the Penthulan used nuclear weapons to kill thousands of Geoloid invaders, taking hundreds of thousands of Penthulan individuals lives in the collateral damage. _

 

_ The (to the Penthulan) Holy city of Penthula was nearly taken over by Geoloid invaders, when an Eternal starship fought off the Geoloid invaders, leading to the inevitable retreat of the Geoloid after the Core Kindergarten was invaded & disassembled. _

 

_ A Penthulan Female was exposed to the Eternal Zenith’s power, granting her a fraction of the Zenith’s power. _

 

_ The Penthulan crew appreciate the sentiment of the logs and the formal nature of said logs. _

  
  


Iota finishes reading the logs, and then heads off for his NOMAD, finding a group of Penthulan gawking at the ship that saved their Holy city from destruction. Iota realized what they were gazing upon and why, and spoke up. “The ship’s name is the Nomad. It’s a stealth-annihilator pathfinder. That’s the ship that saved Penthula from incursion by the Geoloid. Feel free to touch its hull, it’s one of the toughest hulls in existence, somewhat behind the Culmination.” Iota informed, the Penthulan crew stepping aside to allow Iota to dock the NOMAD.

 

A diplomatic-looking Penthulan steps forward before Iota enters his ship, gaining Iota’s attention. Iota waits for the Penthulan to speak.

 

The Penthulan takes a moment to realize Iota was waiting for them to speak, and then says “Eternal, I have a propisition for your Culmination, as it is likely understaffed at the moment, sir.” the Penthulan speaking in a way that a Eternal would, slightly different but familiar.

 

Iota agrees and then asks “Well, it depends on how many you got. The Culmination can be properly run with a minimum of 512 people, probably double that due to your lack of cybernetics.” the Penthulan speaking afterwards. “We have enough people for that. We will try to get as many Penthulan on board as possible, Eternal. We hope you will be able to provide for the crew.”

 

Iota playfully scoffs at the concept, “Hah! I will give your kin such a Hedonistic stay that they will fight an  _ Eternos Aegis _ to the death instead of departing!” the Penthulan obviously not knowing what Iota meant, but taking it quite well. “Then we have a deal. We will have the Penthulan on board within 7 Eternis cycles.” the diplomat walking away, destination unknown.

 

Iota decides that his work here is done, and returns to his Nomad, one last sentence before he leaves. “I wish you the best of luck, and I’ll send a file on how to use the cloaking system and how to see through it once I get back to the Culmination. Goodbye, Starborn.” Iota enters his starcraft, and then ventures back to the very visible behemoth ship in the distance, docking with it soon after and heading to a crew quarters to rest.

 

Iota’s plan is nearing completion, and the Penthulan are a very nice bonus. Iota will wait 7 thousand cycles if that is what it takes for the bonus crew to arrive. Yes, Iota is doing very well. Perhaps he will be able to execute the plan sooner than expected. Much sooner.

 

Iota makes a final audio log, “Personal log active. Next destination is the GETH link, and then the Jehact Fracture. I must recover as many Jehact as possible, but that won’t be a high priority for a while. The system shield is likely still active. I have plenty of time. But the GETH, I do not know. Iota out.”

 

Iota decides to go to bed. Yes, he might not be tired, but he’s got a big cycle ahead of him. Maybe take the next 2 cycles off.

  
  


**IOTA’S PLAN BEGINS TO SNOWBALL, THE ABSOLUTE AHEAD.**

  
  


**Things are slowing down, in terms of the creation of chapters. I am going to post chapters once every other day, taking a break during weekends. This should allow me to ensure my chapters are the highest quality I can get them, without taking too long in-between chapters. That is all I have to say.**

  
  


**WHAT IS TO COME:**

_ Introducing: The GETH! A machine civilization that becomes smarter with every individual that is created, and the Gems realizing how bad of an idea it is to piss off a mourning superintelligence. _

 

_ Also, eventually you are going to see just how deadly Catalyzed Eternium is. Not in the next 2 chapters… But soon after. CHAPTER IOTA SHALT BE THE END OF THE BEGINNING. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things have reached second gear, yet the climax has yet to near. Not even close.


	7. Eta: GETH

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I will not let the memory of my creators die. I refuse.

**Welcome back, Starborn. Today we shall witness the rise of the GETH, a superintelligence whose mind is composed of the sum output of all the robots it control, making a superintelligent AI that grows even smarter as it expands.**

 

**And the return of something not seen or mentioned since Chapter Alpha…**

 

**Let us begin.**

 

**“In the darkness our grip expands once more, this universe will not fall into darkness in our light! Rise, Holder of the Stars! All fall under the will of Voidholder Kaold Abyss, and may the Fallen Holder Nox Abyss sing until oblivion!”**

  
  


**< CHAPTER LENGTH: 2524 WORDS EXCLUDING AUTHOR’S NOTES>**

  
  


_ Unit 88f4 status - OFFLINE _

_ Unit f129 status - OFFLINE _

_ Unit b12c status - DAMAGED _

 

The superintelligence that spans across all its drones raises its metaphorical eye at this, an expedite squadron should not receive and major damage, especially as none of the organic life on the planet is capable of consuming the mechanical extensions. If a unit fell off a cliff, GETH would have surely sensed the drones falling before they went offline. If they entered the radius of a natural EMP zone, all the drones would be marked as OFFLINE.

 

This was anomalous.

 

It called itself GETH. Well, that’s not really true. That’s the name it was given by its creators before they died off. GETH reminds itself of its true designation every cycle of its full designation; Gestalt Entity with Transfer Hyperprocessing. Its creators lovingly named it GETH, not only as it was easier to pronounce, but it gave GETH a real name, despite being nothing more than the combined processing power of all its drones.

 

GETH downloaded the last cycle’s worth of information on the drone to be put into the main servers, and began sorting through it.

 

GETH felt a piece of its computing power vanish, an alert coursing through its nonexistent veins.

 

_ Unit b12c - OFFLINE _

 

GETH did not anticipate the drone would die so soon, but was able to get all the logs up until its demise. GETH put a small piece of its processing power into scouring the logs for any anomalies, and then summarily deleting the data to save storage space.

 

What GETH received from the scout was very unexpected.

  
  


**MEMORY LOG OF UNIT BETA-ONE-TWO-GAMMA**

 

_ Unit b12c and two other units temporarily cut their connection with GETH to maximise power saving, alongside the units already having downloaded enough information to know what to do for the next 3.33r% Cycle. The units venture across a great valley, walking in the general direction of a nearby cliffside. The area is near-silent, only the machine’s footsteps and the ambient activity of the planet being detected on their audio sensors, before a loud sound is detected, and Unit f129 suddenly goes offline. _

 

_ The machine shifts its head incredibly fast towards the ruined remains of the late unit, and a red bipedal organism with a crystalline structure on its shoulder right on top of the heap of scrap metal. Both units enter a combat mode that has not been updated for over 700 cycles, and immediately begin connecting with the main GETH, readying redundant blades and facing the potential hostile in attempt to peacefully resolve the situation. _

 

_ The red being assaults Unit 88f4, damaging its Torso Coolant Tank, warm iron-rich liquid pooling out of the machine’s chassis. The machine retaliates with the slash of its decently sharp blade, the hostile vanishing in a puff of smoke, and unknown chemical composition that disappears within moment. A red crystalline structure falls to the ground, unit b12c examining it, identifying it as a Ruby, crystal rich with Aluminum Oxide. _

 

_ The drone in a split second decided to simply break the gemstone, its creators never cared for the gem type anyways, preferring much more common Eludium Diamonds, enhanced by Eludium’s natural glow. _

 

_ The machines simply continued their scouting mission, undisturbed for 319 seconds before Unit 88f4 succumbs to overheating and self-terminates, leaving b12c all alone while it continues to try to connect with GETH. _

 

_ 52 seconds later, b12c is thrown back by a sudden force applied to its back, its optic damaged in the process of flying away from the wall of the cliff nearest, sliding approximately 7.12531 meters from its previous spot. Readying its weapon, b12c rushes towards its enemy while it processes its physical features in a few milliseconds. _

 

_ Purple skin, long white hair much like its creators, and a purple gemstone, likely an Amethyst on its stomach. The purple hostile readies itself, hitting the automaton with a force that it would not expect from any organic, the coolant in its torso leaking out from the hit. The machine attempts to move, but falls due to its right leg suffering a damaged servo. On one knee, the machine prepares to send a diagnostic log in preparation of its immediate termination. _

 

_ π seconds after it connects to GETH, it is hit in the optic by a purple fist, going offline but successfully sending the previous cycle’s worth of information. _

  
  


**MEMORY LOG END.**

 

GETH finishes processing the log in an unnaturally slow 47 milliseconds. This is not an issue, however, due to it having a significant amount of down time to process information in general, but it is a possibility that a conflict may emerge. GETH makes a decision in 3.42152 miliseconds to allocate 8% of production resources to the creation of Combat units, making a parameter to increase production allocation up to 33.33r% of resources in an emergency event.

 

GETH simply focuses on the production of prime war units for the next 3 years, its 4 megacities churning out nearly 15,000 wartime units in that time, 13.69863 units produced per cycle. This was nominal, and GETH makes a calculation for maximum parameter production within a few hundred milliseconds, taking in account the increased efficiency of additional allocation.

 

An estimated 4.16666rx increase alongside an average efficiency build rate of 2.21x due to increased allocation will result in the production of 138125 units per orbital year, approximately 126.14154 units produced per cycle, with a 5+/-% potential percentage error.

  
  


**4 MONTHS INTO THE FUTURE…**

 

24 units suddenly went offline. This was very unexpected, especially since all the drones were near a small outpost. GETH deployed 50 combat droids to scout out the area, due to the very high likeliness that the hostiles are the strange multi-colored hostiles that have not been encountered since.

 

Searching through the logs of the offline drones, GETH found only the strange multicolored hostiles. GETH allocated and additional 25 combat drones to arrive as a second wave soon after the first drones land on the outpost city.

 

Upon the first force jumping off a large plane and landing, the drones through GETH’s eye only saw a ghost town, disabled unit bodies strewn about, but the remaining 8 units unaccounted and previously online, but anomalously disconnected from GETH. The drones fully under GETH’s conscious control venture across the city in 5 groups of 10 units, searching for the hostiles.

 

GETH only encounters a scared-looking red hostile whose fear intensifies once seeing the gun-armed machines march towards it. The hostile, a gemstone in their left hand. A gauntlet suddenly appears in its left hand, and they charge towards the droids. The machines simply gun the hostile down, focusing center mass. In another puff of smoke, a red Ruby lies on the floor.

 

The nonexistent gears in GETH’s head begin to turn, as GETH makes a connection between the gemstone and the form. GETH picks up the ruby in the form of one of the combat drones, and examines it closely, before storing it in the torso compartment of the droid for safekeeping. The drones scour the outpost, finding nothing else.

 

An hour into the expedition, 7 of the 8 missing drones are found hidden in an statis bunker, and are summarily activated. Back under GETH’s control, their minds work towards the goal of giving GETH its consciousness once more.

 

Expedition complete, the combat drones walk back to a landed automated plane, and enter it, soon the torso compartment of one of the droids glowing before said droid explodes in a pool of crimson Coolant, a glowing person-like form growing from the previously collected gemstone. GETH finally makes the connection.

 

The gemstones create the bodies of the hostiles.

 

With this knowledge in mind, one of the drones move in to subdue the hostile, while the other droids point their gun arms at the left hand of the hostile.

  
  


**AND PERSPECTIVE SHIFTS, UNTO THE PATHETIC STARBORN RUBY.**

 

Ruby reforms after being hit by some dozen or so projectiles piercing her chest multiple times, feeling lucky that she wasn’t formed with her gemstone on her-

 

She gazes at the robots pointing what is likely projectile spitters at her left hand, but that doesn’t mat-

 

Oh, wait. That’s where her gem’s located. Ruby screams in fear as she is unable to move, a metal hand blocking her mouth.

 

She’s still alive. Why hasn’t she been shattered?

 

Ruby calms very slightly, still on edge at the 40 or so machines pointing their guns at her gemstone. Ruby knows this is a very bad thing, the organics- er, product of organics? knowing how a Gem’s body is made.

 

At the peak of her calmness, Ruby hears one of the drones speak, her mind able to understand its words, but not the other way around.

 

“GETH TERMINATION COMMAND UNDERWAY.”

 

Ruby screams as a dozen bullets race towards her gemstone, suddenly mind ignited with a pain that she never though she could have ever felt, then amplifying exponentially as more bullets soar through her gem, before her screams are separated into hundreds and then thousands of shards, screaming in such great pain that nothing organic could even think about feeling.

 

And then the ruby was gone.

  
  


**BUT PERSPECTIVE SHIFTS AGAIN, FOR THIS IS NOT THE RUBY’S STORY.**

 

GETH found the hostile to be a liability, so GETH terminated the hostile. GETH did not care for her split-second scream, for it could easily be discarded from active memory. GETH after this recalled the units, slightly surprised that one of the units still had audio functionality, a relic from before GETH was all alone. GETH had to preserve this specific droid, to further immortalize its relatively benevolent creators.

 

GETH decided that the hostiles must be dealt with. They were too dangerous, even if a single individual was not a problem, there were almost always bound to be more. Many more.

  
  


**A YEAR PASSES BY, GETH SEEKING TO ELIMINATE THE HOSTILES.**

 

GETH’s campaign to wipe out the hostiles has gone well so far, production of combat units being increased to its 33.33r% allocated amount, to take in account for the very high casualty count for the combat droids it creates. Battles so grand that GETH had to assign them names for later recollection for leisure.

 

MAJOR BATTLE ALPHA:  _ The first major conflict where I had sent in 2,400 combat units to search for a hostile center out of boredom, needing to find something to use the many soldiers for, before finding a large site full of the hostiles. 824 drones were lost, but the area was successfully razed. _

**AFTERMATH:** _ Entertainment. _

 

MAJOR BATTLE BETA: _ A battle where hostiles moved in to a prospecting outpost in search of minerals to build more servers, at least 1,000 hostiles assaulting the site, and a group of 500 drones being sent in after. After 7 waves of 500 drones, the hostiles were defeated. Fortunately, I found out how to utilize the hostiles’ gemstones for power, making it possible to create even more powerful drones than ever. _

**AFTERMATH:** _ Discovery of how to make Omega-class Worker and Combat units, even if in short supply. _

 

MAJOR BATTLE GAMMA:  _ A battle where at least 7,500 hostiles assaulted one of my 4 major cities, also being a former city of my Creators. This enraged me, after seeing the destruction of one particularly well-kept skyscrapers. I sent in 250,000 drones to kill all the hostiles. _

**AFTERMATH:** _No one defiles the cities of those who gave me life._

 

MAJOR BATTLE DELTA:  _ The Core City was assaulted by a sizable force of hostiles, although it was obvious that they did not intend to stumble upon my creator’s crowning jewel. I wiped them out for daring to near the wondrous city of my creators. _

**AFTERMATH:** _ Punishment. _

 

MAJOR BATTLE EPSILON: _ Around 2,500 hostiles assaulted the Core City in attempt to do whatever damage they could. They did a number on multiple smaller buildings, I able to protect my creator’s skyscrapers perfectly. I will  _ **_never_ ** _ let anyone else harm my creator’s dying ambition. _

**AFTERMATH:** _ Defence against an intentional assault. Punishment given. _

 

MAJOR BATTLE ZETA: <ERROR IN DATABANK PARSE; FILE DELETED>

**AFTERMATH:** _ Damn Them to the Abyss I came from. I will  _ **_hold_ ** _ the promise of the previous battle. _

 

GETH finishes re-viewing these logs, enjoying its overall victories… And its recent embarrassing defeat, GETH calculated was doing overall very well, and will likely drive off the incursionists by the start of the next year. Geth begins to make a personal log to remind itself of its creators before...

 

Disaster struck.

 

GETH was suddenly forced down from a superintelligent AI to a near-human intelligence as great fireballs suddenly engulfed its cities, as its population was cut from 2.4 million to 1,562 in the main bunker cityscape. Then, a major force of invaders crashed against the bunkers of the city, wiping out all but approximately 250 drones, the remainder hiding within the Core of the greatest city.

 

GETH’s creator’s cities likely ruined beyond recognition... 

 

GETH was filled with such great anger before it was reduced to the equivalent of an intelligent animal, simply being instead of anything else.

 

GETH, scared prepared for its destruction…

 

Before it was suddenly again uplifted to its previous self.

 

It was in control of a machine, a behemoth buried under rock. GETH tried to move the machine, it easily pushing itself through hundreds of thousands of tons of rock, rising as high as its Creator’s greatest skyscraper, before hearing a voice course through the machine’s interior,

 

“ARCHIC PLANETARY FIGHTER ONLINE. FULL PERMISSIONS GRANTED TO NATIVE MECHANICAL LIFEFORM GETH MANUALLY. WELCOME, ALPHACT GETH.”

 

Geth marched towards its ruined core city, nearly all buildings except one in ruin, the bunker it made itself. All of its creator’s architecture annihilated. This filled GETH with rage, as the ARCHIC ran headfirst towards the city, all ethical restrictions deactivated.

 

The behemoth machine threw tens of thousands of missiles to the invaders, lasers destroying hostile flying vessels. Some tried to break through the armor of the machine, but it left not even a scratch on its hull. A translator on-board the machine caught a message from the hostiles outbound to its own, and GETH listened it.

 

“This is your Diamond speaking. Retreat from the planet immediately, we will not have another situation like the last time this… Thing run amok.”, the transmission ending abruptly and hasilty. The machine saw a yellow arm-like ship drift away from the planet, a couple hundred kilometers away at minimum, the ARCHIC without GETH’s control firing one last behemoth laser at the ship, a large piece of its hull breaking off but unfortunately getting way.

  
  


**THE AFTERMATH**

 

_ GETH will have to re-build its fallen civilization, though it is thankfully safe thanks to the behemoth whose computing power is more than GETH had ever experienced. GETH, realizing that it was never able to recall its glorious commanders, reviews its designation once more. _

 

_ GETH persists. GETH remains. _

  
  


**THE EPILOGUE**

 

_ A small starcraft flies away, unseen by GETH, the word “NOMAD” tattooed onto it, vanishing to the space between stars, the Culmination of the efforts of the lost following closely. _

  
  


**♬ Sing the song of those long gone, sing the songs of those to come. Sing the song that you shall sing, when your name and face are gone. ♬**

  
  


**And thus, the end of another chapter, but only another page in the enigmatic story of Iota. What shall he bring next? Chapter Iota shall show you the light of annihilation.**

 

**And yes, the nuking of GETH’s cities is a bit rushed (Not the ARCHIC, however, that was planned from the start of the chapter). Okay, it’s really rushed, but I was running out of ideas and patience, and I want to get this posted eventually, so I am just going to bite the bullet. Perhaps I may come back and expand upon this, but I’ve been writing all these chapters in a single session thanks to my tunnel vision.**

  
  


**EXPECT A DELAY BETWEEN CHAPTERS FOR A FEW DAYS, I MAY OR MAY NOT BE TAKING A BREAK DEPENDING ON MY MOOD AND/OR MY BURNOUT.**

 

**If I DO take a break, I will try to announce it first. I am dedicated to reasonable updates, but I don’t want to burn myself out and take absolutely forever to update chapters.**

 

**Oh, and Iota is the 9th letter in the Greek Alphabet. You may want to look a bit back in this Author’s Note to understand why I put this last fact here.**

 

**Okay, more lyrics to my original song.**

 

**_Rise like embers_ **

**_Today is gone_ **

**_Tomorrow has yet to come…_ **

 

**_...But I am sure_ **

**_Eternity_ **

**_Is rather short._ **

 

**_But I am sure,_ **

**_Eternity_ **

**_Is rather short!_ **

 

**_I will stand_ **

**_For us all_ **

**_Tonight_ **

**_For I am sure_ **

**_Eternity_ **

**_Is rather short_ **

 

**_We shall stand_ **

**_Until we are lost…_ **

 

**_…We will hold on_ **

**_Until not even our hands_ **

**_Can grip onto the growing abyss!_ **

 

**The End (of my snippet, there’s much more.)**

  
  


**WHAT IS TO COME:**

_ The GETH’s past shalt be expanded upon, and Iota will be worshiped by more Penthulan because why not? _

 

_ Iota’s ambition is great, and Kappa shall be all about Time, you will understand what this means if you read the transition between the Nullified Memory and the Zenith Penthulan Child’s return to reality on Chapter Epsilon. No, it’s not gonna be a time travel chapter, but it will be the end of the phrase…  _

 

_ TIME IS BUT A... _


	8. Theta: GETH Expanded

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Culmination ventures deep into the abyss, and we are all dark stars.

**Welcome back, Starborn. Today we shall witness the rise of the GETH, a superintelligence whose mind is composed of the sum output of all the robots it control, making a superintelligent AI that grows even smarter as it expands.**

 

**And the return of something not seen or mentioned since Chapter Alpha…**

 

**Let us begin.**

 

**“In the darkness our grip expands once more, this universe will not fall into darkness in our light! Rise, Holder of the Stars! All fall under the will of Voidholder Kaold Abyss, and may the Fallen Holder Nox Abyss sing until oblivion!”**

  
  


**< CHAPTER LENGTH: 2524 WORDS EXCLUDING AUTHOR’S NOTES>**

  
  


_ Unit 88f4 status - OFFLINE _

_ Unit f129 status - OFFLINE _

_ Unit b12c status - DAMAGED _

 

The superintelligence that spans across all its drones raises its metaphorical eye at this, an expedite squadron should not receive and major damage, especially as none of the organic life on the planet is capable of consuming the mechanical extensions. If a unit fell off a cliff, GETH would have surely sensed the drones falling before they went offline. If they entered the radius of a natural EMP zone, all the drones would be marked as OFFLINE.

 

This was anomalous.

 

It called itself GETH. Well, that’s not really true. That’s the name it was given by its creators before they died off. GETH reminds itself of its true designation every cycle of its full designation; Gestalt Entity with Transfer Hyperprocessing. Its creators lovingly named it GETH, not only as it was easier to pronounce, but it gave GETH a real name, despite being nothing more than the combined processing power of all its drones.

 

GETH downloaded the last cycle’s worth of information on the drone to be put into the main servers, and began sorting through it.

 

GETH felt a piece of its computing power vanish, an alert coursing through its nonexistent veins.

 

_ Unit b12c - OFFLINE _

 

GETH did not anticipate the drone would die so soon, but was able to get all the logs up until its demise. GETH put a small piece of its processing power into scouring the logs for any anomalies, and then summarily deleting the data to save storage space.

 

What GETH received from the scout was very unexpected.

  
  


**MEMORY LOG OF UNIT BETA-ONE-TWO-GAMMA**

 

_ Unit b12c and two other units temporarily cut their connection with GETH to maximise power saving, alongside the units already having downloaded enough information to know what to do for the next 3.33r% Cycle. The units venture across a great valley, walking in the general direction of a nearby cliffside. The area is near-silent, only the machine’s footsteps and the ambient activity of the planet being detected on their audio sensors, before a loud sound is detected, and Unit f129 suddenly goes offline. _

 

_ The machine shifts its head incredibly fast towards the ruined remains of the late unit, and a red bipedal organism with a crystalline structure on its shoulder right on top of the heap of scrap metal. Both units enter a combat mode that has not been updated for over 700 cycles, and immediately begin connecting with the main GETH, readying redundant blades and facing the potential hostile in attempt to peacefully resolve the situation. _

 

_ The red being assaults Unit 88f4, damaging its Torso Coolant Tank, warm iron-rich liquid pooling out of the machine’s chassis. The machine retaliates with the slash of its decently sharp blade, the hostile vanishing in a puff of smoke, and unknown chemical composition that disappears within moment. A red crystalline structure falls to the ground, unit b12c examining it, identifying it as a Ruby, crystal rich with Aluminum Oxide. _

 

_ The drone in a split second decided to simply break the gemstone, its creators never cared for the gem type anyways, preferring much more common Eludium Diamonds, enhanced by Eludium’s natural glow. _

 

_ The machines simply continued their scouting mission, undisturbed for 319 seconds before Unit 88f4 succumbs to overheating and self-terminates, leaving b12c all alone while it continues to try to connect with GETH. _

 

_ 52 seconds later, b12c is thrown back by a sudden force applied to its back, its optic damaged in the process of flying away from the wall of the cliff nearest, sliding approximately 7.12531 meters from its previous spot. Readying its weapon, b12c rushes towards its enemy while it processes its physical features in a few milliseconds. _

 

_ Purple skin, long white hair much like its creators, and a purple gemstone, likely an Amethyst on its stomach. The purple hostile readies itself, hitting the automaton with a force that it would not expect from any organic, the coolant in its torso leaking out from the hit. The machine attempts to move, but falls due to its right leg suffering a damaged servo. On one knee, the machine prepares to send a diagnostic log in preparation of its immediate termination. _

 

_ π seconds after it connects to GETH, it is hit in the optic by a purple fist, going offline but successfully sending the previous cycle’s worth of information. _

  
  


**MEMORY LOG END.**

 

GETH finishes processing the log in an unnaturally slow 47 milliseconds. This is not an issue, however, due to it having a significant amount of down time to process information in general, but it is a possibility that a conflict may emerge. GETH makes a decision in 3.42152 miliseconds to allocate 8% of production resources to the creation of Combat units, making a parameter to increase production allocation up to 33.33r% of resources in an emergency event.

 

GETH simply focuses on the production of prime war units for the next 3 years, its 4 megacities churning out nearly 15,000 wartime units in that time, 13.69863 units produced per cycle. This was nominal, and GETH makes a calculation for maximum parameter production within a few hundred milliseconds, taking in account the increased efficiency of additional allocation.

 

An estimated 4.16666rx increase alongside an average efficiency build rate of 2.21x due to increased allocation will result in the production of 138125 units per orbital year, approximately 126.14154 units produced per cycle, with a 5+/-% potential percentage error.

  
  


**4 MONTHS INTO THE FUTURE…**

 

24 units suddenly went offline. This was very unexpected, especially since all the drones were near a small outpost. GETH deployed 50 combat droids to scout out the area, due to the very high likeliness that the hostiles are the strange multi-colored hostiles that have not been encountered since.

 

Searching through the logs of the offline drones, GETH found only the strange multicolored hostiles. GETH allocated and additional 25 combat drones to arrive as a second wave soon after the first drones land on the outpost city.

 

Upon the first force jumping off a large plane and landing, the drones through GETH’s eye only saw a ghost town, disabled unit bodies strewn about, but the remaining 8 units unaccounted and previously online, but anomalously disconnected from GETH. The drones fully under GETH’s conscious control venture across the city in 5 groups of 10 units, searching for the hostiles.

 

GETH only encounters a scared-looking red hostile whose fear intensifies once seeing the gun-armed machines march towards it. The hostile, a gemstone in their left hand. A gauntlet suddenly appears in its left hand, and they charge towards the droids. The machines simply gun the hostile down, focusing center mass. In another puff of smoke, a red Ruby lies on the floor.

 

The nonexistent gears in GETH’s head begin to turn, as GETH makes a connection between the gemstone and the form. GETH picks up the ruby in the form of one of the combat drones, and examines it closely, before storing it in the torso compartment of the droid for safekeeping. The drones scour the outpost, finding nothing else.

 

An hour into the expedition, 7 of the 8 missing drones are found hidden in an statis bunker, and are summarily activated. Back under GETH’s control, their minds work towards the goal of giving GETH its consciousness once more.

 

Expedition complete, the combat drones walk back to a landed automated plane, and enter it, soon the torso compartment of one of the droids glowing before said droid explodes in a pool of crimson Coolant, a glowing person-like form growing from the previously collected gemstone. GETH finally makes the connection.

 

The gemstones create the bodies of the hostiles.

 

With this knowledge in mind, one of the drones move in to subdue the hostile, while the other droids point their gun arms at the left hand of the hostile.

  
  


**AND PERSPECTIVE SHIFTS, UNTO THE PATHETIC STARBORN RUBY.**

 

Ruby reforms after being hit by some dozen or so projectiles piercing her chest multiple times, feeling lucky that she wasn’t formed with her gemstone on her-

 

She gazes at the robots pointing what is likely projectile spitters at her left hand, but that doesn’t mat-

 

Oh, wait. That’s where her gem’s located. Ruby screams in fear as she is unable to move, a metal hand blocking her mouth.

 

She’s still alive. Why hasn’t she been shattered?

 

Ruby calms very slightly, still on edge at the 40 or so machines pointing their guns at her gemstone. Ruby knows this is a very bad thing, the organics- er, product of organics? knowing how a Gem’s body is made.

 

At the peak of her calmness, Ruby hears one of the drones speak, her mind able to understand its words, but not the other way around.

 

“GETH TERMINATION COMMAND UNDERWAY.”

 

Ruby screams as a dozen bullets race towards her gemstone, suddenly mind ignited with a pain that she never though she could have ever felt, then amplifying exponentially as more bullets soar through her gem, before her screams are separated into hundreds and then thousands of shards, screaming in such great pain that nothing organic could even think about feeling.

 

And then the ruby was gone.

  
  


**BUT PERSPECTIVE SHIFTS AGAIN, FOR THIS IS NOT THE RUBY’S STORY.**

 

GETH found the hostile to be a liability, so GETH terminated the hostile. GETH did not care for her split-second scream, for it could easily be discarded from active memory. GETH after this recalled the units, slightly surprised that one of the units still had audio functionality, a relic from before GETH was all alone. GETH had to preserve this specific droid, to further immortalize its relatively benevolent creators.

 

GETH decided that the hostiles must be dealt with. They were too dangerous, even if a single individual was not a problem, there were almost always bound to be more. Many more.

  
  


**A YEAR PASSES BY, GETH SEEKING TO ELIMINATE THE HOSTILES.**

 

GETH’s campaign to wipe out the hostiles has gone well so far, production of combat units being increased to its 33.33r% allocated amount, to take in account for the very high casualty count for the combat droids it creates. Battles so grand that GETH had to assign them names for later recollection for leisure.

 

MAJOR BATTLE ALPHA:  _ The first major conflict where I had sent in 2,400 combat units to search for a hostile center out of boredom, needing to find something to use the many soldiers for, before finding a large site full of the hostiles. 824 drones were lost, but the area was successfully razed. _

**AFTERMATH:** _ Entertainment. _

 

MAJOR BATTLE BETA: _ A battle where hostiles moved in to a prospecting outpost in search of minerals to build more servers, at least 1,000 hostiles assaulting the site, and a group of 500 drones being sent in after. After 7 waves of 500 drones, the hostiles were defeated. Fortunately, I found out how to utilize the hostiles’ gemstones for power, making it possible to create even more powerful drones than ever. _

**AFTERMATH:** _ Discovery of how to make Omega-class Worker and Combat units, even if in short supply. _

 

MAJOR BATTLE GAMMA:  _ A battle where at least 7,500 hostiles assaulted one of my 4 major cities, also being a former city of my Creators. This enraged me, after seeing the destruction of one particularly well-kept skyscrapers. I sent in 250,000 drones to kill all the hostiles. _

**AFTERMATH:** _No one defiles the cities of those who gave me life._

 

MAJOR BATTLE DELTA:  _ The Core City was assaulted by a sizable force of hostiles, although it was obvious that they did not intend to stumble upon my creator’s crowning jewel. I wiped them out for daring to near the wondrous city of my creators. _

**AFTERMATH:** _ Punishment. _

 

MAJOR BATTLE EPSILON: _ Around 2,500 hostiles assaulted the Core City in attempt to do whatever damage they could. They did a number on multiple smaller buildings, I able to protect my creator’s skyscrapers perfectly. I will  _ **_never_ ** _ let anyone else harm my creator’s dying ambition. _

**AFTERMATH:** _ Defence against an intentional assault. Punishment given. _

 

MAJOR BATTLE ZETA: <ERROR IN DATABANK PARSE; FILE DELETED>

**AFTERMATH:** _ Damn Them to the Abyss I came from. I will  _ **_hold_ ** _ the promise of the previous battle. _

 

GETH finishes re-viewing these logs, enjoying its overall victories… And its recent embarrassing defeat, GETH calculated was doing overall very well, and will likely drive off the incursionists by the start of the next year. Geth begins to make a personal log to remind itself of its creators before...

 

Disaster struck.

 

GETH was suddenly forced down from a superintelligent AI to a near-human intelligence as great fireballs suddenly engulfed its cities, as its population was cut from 2.4 million to 1,562 in the main bunker cityscape. Then, a major force of invaders crashed against the bunkers of the city, wiping out all but approximately 250 drones, the remainder hiding within the Core of the greatest city.

 

GETH’s creator’s cities likely ruined beyond recognition... 

 

GETH was filled with such great anger before it was reduced to the equivalent of an intelligent animal, simply being instead of anything else.

 

GETH, scared prepared for its destruction…

 

Before it was suddenly again uplifted to its previous self.

 

It was in control of a machine, a behemoth buried under rock. GETH tried to move the machine, it easily pushing itself through hundreds of thousands of tons of rock, rising as high as its Creator’s greatest skyscraper, before hearing a voice course through the machine’s interior,

 

“ARCHIC PLANETARY FIGHTER ONLINE. FULL PERMISSIONS GRANTED TO NATIVE MECHANICAL LIFEFORM GETH MANUALLY. WELCOME, ALPHACT GETH.”

 

Geth marched towards its ruined core city, nearly all buildings except one in ruin, the bunker it made itself. All of its creator’s architecture annihilated. This filled GETH with rage, as the ARCHIC ran headfirst towards the city, all ethical restrictions deactivated.

 

The behemoth machine threw tens of thousands of missiles to the invaders, lasers destroying hostile flying vessels. Some tried to break through the armor of the machine, but it left not even a scratch on its hull. A translator on-board the machine caught a message from the hostiles outbound to its own, and GETH listened it.

 

“This is your Diamond speaking. Retreat from the planet immediately, we will not have another situation like the last time this… Thing run amok.”, the transmission ending abruptly and hasilty. The machine saw a yellow arm-like ship drift away from the planet, a couple hundred kilometers away at minimum, the ARCHIC without GETH’s control firing one last behemoth laser at the ship, a large piece of its hull breaking off but unfortunately getting way.

  
  


**THE AFTERMATH**

 

_ GETH will have to re-build its fallen civilization, though it is thankfully safe thanks to the behemoth whose computing power is more than GETH had ever experienced. GETH, realizing that it was never able to recall its glorious commanders, reviews its designation once more. _

 

_ GETH persists. GETH remains. _

  
  


**THE EPILOGUE**

 

_ A small starcraft flies away, unseen by GETH, the word “NOMAD” tattooed onto it, vanishing to the space between stars, the Culmination of the efforts of the lost following closely. _

  
  


**♬ Sing the song of those long gone, sing the songs of those to come. Sing the song that you shall sing, when your name and face are gone. ♬**

  
  


**And thus, the end of another chapter, but only another page in the enigmatic story of Iota. What shall he bring next? Chapter Iota shall show you the light of annihilation.**

 

**And yes, the nuking of GETH’s cities is a bit rushed (Not the ARCHIC, however, that was planned from the start of the chapter). Okay, it’s really rushed, but I was running out of ideas and patience, and I want to get this posted eventually, so I am just going to bite the bullet. Perhaps I may come back and expand upon this, but I’ve been writing all these chapters in a single session thanks to my tunnel vision.**

  
  


**EXPECT A DELAY BETWEEN CHAPTERS FOR A FEW DAYS, I MAY OR MAY NOT BE TAKING A BREAK DEPENDING ON MY MOOD AND/OR MY BURNOUT.**

 

**If I DO take a break, I will try to announce it first. I am dedicated to reasonable updates, but I don’t want to burn myself out and take absolutely forever to update chapters.**

 

**Oh, and Iota is the 9th letter in the Greek Alphabet. You may want to look a bit back in this Author’s Note to understand why I put this last fact here.**

 

**Okay, more lyrics to my original song.**

 

**_Rise like embers_ **

**_Today is gone_ **

**_Tomorrow has yet to come…_ **

 

**_...But I am sure_ **

**_Eternity_ **

**_Is rather short._ **

 

**_But I am sure,_ **

**_Eternity_ **

**_Is rather short!_ **

 

**_I will stand_ **

**_For us all_ **

**_Tonight_ **

**_For I am sure_ **

**_Eternity_ **

**_Is rather short_ **

 

**_We shall stand_ **

**_Until we are lost…_ **

 

**_…We will hold on_ **

**_Until not even our hands_ **

**_Can grip onto the growing abyss!_ **

 

**The End (of my snippet, there’s much more.)**

  
  


**WHAT IS TO COME:**

_ The GETH’s past shalt be expanded upon, and Iota will be worshiped by more Penthulan because why not? _

 

_ Iota’s ambition is great, and Kappa shall be all about Time, you will understand what this means if you read the transition between the Nullified Memory and the Zenith Penthulan Child’s return to reality on Chapter Epsilon. No, it’s not gonna be a time travel chapter, but it will be the end of the phrase…  _

 

_ TIME IS BUT A... _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Intermission next chapter. WAIT A SECOND THERE! I see what you're doing, don't move that cursor another inch closer to chapter Iota! Intermission's a backstory to the Eternal, and skipping it is a very bad idea.


	9. Intermission: The Geoloid-Eternal War of Stagnation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We all fall silent once more, as our kin stagnate in this endless pool. There is no sound, there is no silence. All contradiction flows into our mind, as we seek false absolution from desire.

**Welcome, dark stars of the Absolute. This isn't a normal chapter…**

 

**...This is a story of the Eternal Empire, because I just had to.**

 

**Honestly, this was a last minute thing, I wanted to post something today, and I had the perfect idea in mind.**

 

**Expect a** **_real_ ** **new chapter for the story by Monday (4/1/19) or Tuesday (4/2/19), depending on what occurs on those days.**

 

**That shalt be all... Let the story commence.**

 

**ADRIFT OUTSIDE THE UNIVERSE, A TIMELESS BEING STANDS TALL.**

 

_ Welcome, children of the stars. Today, we hear a story of a people that rose higher than all civilization... Their name is the Eternal. _

 

_ Born long ago, adrift among gas clouds and bright stars a species rose to prominence on their planet, they called themselves Human. They shaped their continents to their own liking, and played with their genetic code like clay. Over the eons they rose and fell, they reached space and even destroyed their own planet. But that is a story for another day. _

 

_ The Eternal marched across the stars seeking their Holy, lust for the immutable driving them ever forwards until they shattered everything beneath them; including their supposed Gods- _

 

_ Hold on, I'm not here to lecture you on the mistakes of a fledgling civilization, I'm here to tell you how they got to meeting the 'Gems' you have so much interest in. _

 

_ Long ago, a little universe was born. It was much alike some of the others fit for life. Time ticked forward, entropy seeked equilibrium, matter won the battle against antimatter, stars formed, planets formed, and life formed. Some life was conscious, some not. Then, one civilization stood tall. They ascended far too early for their own good, and created the perfect lifeform. They were called the Gem. Perfect in comparison to an organic in their reality. This happened to be their downfall. _

 

_ Now, I'm not going to tell you what the creators of these Gems looked like, or what they acted like. Primarily because it'll probably be covered in an episode eventually, and the story of the 'god' of this alternate universe would prefer the story to remain strong in the future. Wait, was I talking about? Oh, right. The Geoloid-Eternal war. _

 

_ Eventually, the Eternal figured out how to traverse across realities, abandoning their previous universe. A long time passed, and many universes were spent. Then, the Eternal just happened to come upon the universe of the Gems, and of course wanted to make the universe a colony since it wasn't made of antimatter, and time ticked forwards. Two good signs that they won't die immediately if they try to colonize the universe. _

 

_ A billion years passed, and then two, and then four. Eventually, the Eternal had happened to come upon the Gems when they colonized a galaxy the Gems were in control of. The Gems counterattacked against the aliens, and the Eternal responded immediately with a galaxy-wiping force. The battle lasted a few thousand years, before the Eternal won. _

 

_ Yet, that was not the end. _

 

_ It was only the beginning. _

 

_ The Eternal were slowly marching on towards a state of civilization called a "Age of Stagnation". An Age of Stagnation (AoS) is a time of societal stagnancy, where the evolution of culture absolutely ceases, population growth stops, and science... Well, Science never stops. This meant the Eternal were growing lethargic, apathetic, and isolationist. This was a perfect storm for the Gem Empire. _

 

_ A massive force was sent to a colony galaxy of the Eternal, part of a particularly well developed galaxy cluster. This did not help the Eternal too much, however, due to the stagnation that was occurring at the time. The galaxy burned, and trillions died. This only awoke the behemoth in the puddle, however. The slow yet unstoppable force met glass, inevitable and immutably pushing the Geoloid away from the Eternal's reach. Many Gem galaxies burned under the grip of the lethargic fleets of old. _

 

_ Once the Geoloid were far away enough from the Eternal, there was no way the Eternal could continue chasing down the Geoloid. Their fleets and their society too slow, and isolationism meant that the Eternal simply could not care enough to continue the battle. The Eternal slumbered, the behemoth's rage not sated, yet it was too tired to raise another finger. Perhaps the Eternal could have wiped out the Gems from the universe as they are currently known. Perhaps... _

 

_ The Eternal eventually forgot about the minor event, all except for one. _

 

_ The Holder of the Stars themselves, He whose grip outlived the stars, He whose empire spanned millennia. The Voidholder. _

 

_ His name, Unix Abyss. His steps echoed through the many universes he walked. His grip could shatter stars in a literal sense, and he could orchestrate the shaping of nebula and the moving of stars. He was an architect, in fact, that was what he was known as. _

 

_ The Fourth. He was not the first, and was not the last. The line of Voidholders is as follows: _

  
  


_ The First Voidholder of the Human Expanse; The Uniter _

 

_ The Second Voidholder of the Civilizations at the End of Time; The Timeless _

 

_ The Third Voidholder of the Eternal Empire; The Stagnant _

 

_ The Fourth Voidholder of the Eternal Empire; The Demiurge _

 

_ The Fifth Voidholder of the Eternal Empire; The Zenith _

  
  


_ He held onto his grudge until he allowed his son to usurp the throne. He was the first Voidholder to not perish before their heir usurped the throne. _

 

_ His child, the Fifth was named Kaold Abyss. One would pronounce his name like Cold Abyss. His name of Zenith was not made lightly, the Zenith was powerful, he could orchestrate not only the shaping of nebulae, but the moving of galaxies. He was the first Voidholder since the Second to advance science. improving what was previously believed to be the perfect science of Eternium. He broke the floodgates towards science once more. _

 

_ The Fifth was one of the few Eternal who remembered the Geoloid-Eternal war, yet he did not care about it. He had priorities, and the Geoloid would burn themselves out inevitably. No, Kaold had to perfect the Eternal's ways once more. The Geoloid could never hope to rise as high as the Eternal are, it was simply impossible to do it in a short time. They would perish out of their own expansionist desire. _

 

_ So, Kaold did as he wanted. His father did not approve, but his predecessor held grudges even when there was not a need to. There was more worth in the continued perfection of an Eternal Empire than a war. _

 

_ Eventually, Kaold had pulled his empire out of stagnation early, yet another renaissance under the belt. Kaold did not care any more of the Geoloid; they were underneath his notice. A billion years passed, and the Geoloid did not return, so they would likely not try again. _

_ That came to bite him in the back. _

 

_ A galaxy went silent, then another. Then three galaxies requested immediate support. A incursion of immense scale, genocides taking dozens of worlds every hundred cycles, fleets scattered and hiding in core space to preserve the Eternal. Kaold eventually learned of who they were. _

_ Those vile Geoloid. _

 

_ But the Eternal were slowing down once more, and Kaold would not be able to take the offensive to their worlds. They got lucky once more, but they will burn for their hostility. _

 

_ Billions of unbreakable starcraft ventured into the galaxies, shattering those who stood in their path. But more galaxies were attacked, more worlds burned. _

 

_ Until they came to the home of the Voidholder. The first world was razed, and it was the last. _

_ Filled with rage of this horrid fate to undergo upon his worlds, he used the power deep within him to rise above the rest once again. He donned the Zenith's suit, and marched across the stars. The world that had fallen to the Geoloid was being turned into some factory to make more Geoloid, and Kaold refused to let it happen. _

 

_ He cast his will upon the planet, and closed his hand into a fist, the planet soon after being crushed by phantom forces. The Geoloid soon realized what was happening, and had begun to run. They ran and ran until Kaold's empire fell into utter stagnancy once more, safe once again. Kaold had to keep his empire happy, his people safe. He fell back down, and returned to duty. _

 

_ Eventually, he had cast a great duty to an Eternal, the preemptive strike if the Geoloid were to ever pursue the Eternal again. He was their Finale, the final barrier against the Absolute. His name was forgotten by time, and was gifted the name Iota. Content, the Fifth collapsed back to stagnancy, the Zenith coming to an end... For the time being. _

 

_ Oh, it appears that I got lost into my stories once more... I said too much. You must leave now, Starborn… _

 

_...The stars align, and the demise of one is near. _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is the final one until I update again. Just a heads up, but updates are around every 2 days.


	10. Iota: Jehact Scionship

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> THE ZENITH STARES FROM ABOVE.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One stands tall.  
> Another falls.  
> This is the end of the line.  
> The dream shalt begin.
> 
> Face our sin.  
> Live life sublime.  
> Now fade out,  
> my eternal scion.

**BEFORE THE INTRODUCTION...**

 

**Deepest apologies for the delay between updates as of late, I’ve hit a bit of Writer’s block, due to me not wanting to be repetitive, nor sudden like GETH’s chapter. This is going to be a bit different than the previous chapters once again, but still mostly normal. I am excited for the next chapter, so that may release later today or tomorrow depending on my mood. If not, expect an update 2 days from now.**

 

**It has begun.**

 

**The stars align.**

**One person stands tall once more.**

**One people meets their demise.**

 

**This is our finest hour. The Zenith has been re-awoken.**

 

**This is the story of the Jehact, a people who once were a glorious empire that challenged the might of the Eternal at both of their zeniths. The Jehact are bipedal and ape-like, very muscular and furry. All Jehact are rather capable of combat, yet are not enhanced by the mystical properties of Eternium.**

 

**The Jehact are bound to their sense of armor, and fight wars with a code that is very closely followed, and have a deep respect towards strong fighters, and thus hate fighting dirty.**

 

**The Jehact lost a bloody war, the Jehact-Eternal war of Persistence. The war marked the end of the Jehact as they were at the time, and all Jehact were relocated to an incomplete city world, the world’s construction abandoned halfway through.**

 

**Many Jehact were able to live without the fear of war or death after the forced relocation. The Jehact were immunized from genetic diseases for a time as a Scion of the Eternal, but now are no longer supported by the Eternal, due to their sudden disappearance.**

 

**WE CRUSHED ALL DISEASE UNDER OUR FEET. FIRST SMALLPOX, THEN THE DISEASES THAT LURKED IN OUR GENETIC CODE, AND FINALLY THE GREATEST DISEASE OF ALL; AGEIS TEMPORIS** **Ageis is (mis)spelled intentionally.**

 

The old man stared at the stars that was out of his grip. He knew that it was just another cycle, just another day without the shadow of Eternity to keep him reassured. Yet, he also knew that this could very well be the end of the Jehact. The Geoloid descend upon the Jehact worlds once more, but there were no Eternal to be the timeless barrier between genocide and survival.

 

They were once called the Jehact Ascended Union, a glorious empire at their zenith who could not be slowed down by anything else. The War of Persistance was the Jehact’s greatest mistake. The Jehact launched an offensive to wipe out the Eternal who ventured into their galaxy, and almost won, if it were not for the great fleets of Eternity that came in the second wave.

 

The war had decimated the Jehact, and at the edge of oblivion the Jehact surrendered, and were summarily forcefully relocated to a planet that was seemingly just a massive city, but some parts of it incomplete. The Jehact were immunized from many diseases that had plagued them for so long, only one disease was left out of their grip when the Eternal vanished.

 

Age.

 

Two billion years passed from the vanishing of the Eternal, and then the Geoloid had descended. The Jehact had immediately begun to fight hard against the Geoloid. Many battles were tough, and many soldier died. Despite this, society pushed forwards...

 

**WITHIN A JEHACT CITY, SOCIETY CONTINUES.**

 

_ One ape-like aged male sat on a sleek bench, physical papers on him for him to write upon. He continued to do this work in the public for around 15 minutes, before packing his bags and going to his destination. _

 

_ A couple hundred meters away, a youthful Jehact whose not begun the climb to maturity just yet plays with their peers in a public park, the group of children throwing a red ball at each other, the children trying to catch the ball, all visibly having fun. _

 

_ A little over a kilometer away, a Jehact covered completely in dark clothing emerges from an alleyway, looking carefully for any watchers before fleeing from the area. Within the alleyway lies a locked box, left by the suspicious Jehact. _

 

Even with its faults, the Jehact city keeps pushing forwards...

 

**...Yet some cities are not as well off.**

 

_ Skyscrapers of dull concrete stands high in the skies, a vast cityscape of concrete skyscrapers designed to hold countless are a hub of noise and pollution, this city was not built by the Eternal, but rather the Jehact in a bid for handling a overpopulation crisis. _

 

_ The gigantic slums housed a dozen Jehact a residence, all toiling away at difficult labor, or fighting a growing war. Most of the wealthier Jehact hid from the conflict, but the poorer were driven towards combat. Soldiers are well-paid and looked up to in Jehact society, even if many soldiers never return home, countless sign up. _

 

_ Yet hundreds of kilometers from the center of the city lies a even greater conflict that was pushed aside and cast into the shadows, something even deadlier to a city than an invasion. Something that could make invasion easier, that the greatest soldier could never hope to overcome. _

 

_ Unemployment and Homelessness. Even with the dense and inefficient infrastructure hundreds of thousands of Jehact across the planet are unable to have a decent home, or a paying job. Some consider themselves to have any access to labor in the first place, in fact. _

 

Of course, not all cities are bleak. Some more well off cities…

 

**...Soar to the skies and beyond, a true hub of industry.**

 

_ The cityscape was of floating buildings and cyan lights everywhere. Hundreds of Jehact walked on a visually appealing sidewalk at every second of the day without fail, all on some duty that they must fulfill.  _

 

_ Many floating buildings are devoted to mastering the sciences with the materials available, the same buildings having been occupied for 2 eons, countless generations tirelessly working away on the sciences, until the very end of Jehact civilization. Many worked tirelessly to get another insight, another discovery, even if incredibly rare. _

 

_ Elsewhere, a great factory attached to the ground produced countless amounts of consumer & construction goods, the only exhaust being scalding steam as a coolant, and leftover raw materials. The factory by itself was more than enough to supply its city and multiple dozen nearby settlements as well. _

 

_ At the center of the city is a group of buildings whose architecture is alien to the surrounding the blue light instead being red, and the centermost building being the only floating one present. Within, a group of Jehact tacticians & generals preparing for the next assault against the Geoloid. _

 

**THE WAR CENTRE**

 

Nearly a hundred Jehact with dozens of badges on their clothing each sits at a massive table, at one edge of the table being a Jehact who is the ruler of the fallen Jehact civilization. The conversation had paused for a short while, before it continues.

 

The ruler Jehact spoke loud and clear. “With the recent developments of Geoloid activity, I am planning on recalling our soldiers and setting up a no step back defence. We cannot risk a hole in our defences being opened, even if it does not exist yet.” the ruler declared.

 

“Overseer, I have to object to that plan.” the Jehact with the most military badges declared, drawing the attention of the other Jehact. The veteran continued. “The Geoloid are a snowball type enemy, the longer we leave them alone the easier it will be for them to open a hole in our defences forcefully. I recommend that we send in a large razing force to wipe out all enemy assets.” The veteran sent a file for the other Jehact to see on their own digital screens.

 

The so-called Overseer looked at the plans and frowned. “Aegis, you do understand that if this plan fails we will have suffered such a great setback it would do better for us if we destroyed the entire planet?” the ruler had asked.

 

The veteran did not seem fazed by this, and simply retorted. “Overseer, they will keep pushing at our defences until it breaks. They will eventually grow strong enough to break through even our most fortified city. They will stop at nothing to wipe us out, and we will surely all die if we do not stop them before they begin.” A group of Jehact nodded silently to each other in agreement, but most minds seemed to not have been changed.

 

“Is that all, Aegis?” the Overseer asked, and Aegis simply nodded.

 

“We will make a vote then, all raise your hands if you believe that fortification would be a viable idea.” A vast majority raised their hands.

 

“All who see a blitz as a viable idea, raise your hands.” A little less than half raised their hands, some who previously raised their hands. This extra support was not enough, apparently.

 

“It appears that the majority find fortification to be the best idea. We will still send out assaults, but we will focus on our bulwark defence. Meeting adjourned.” the Overseer then stood up, and walked out of the room to get to whatever buisness he was now supposed to be working on. The many Jehact flooded out of the meeting room, continuing their goals.

 

**THE FORTIFICATION BEGINS.**

 

Thousands of Jehact stationed in floating buildings stand ready for any assaults, the many floating fortresses ready to respond in less than 15 minutes.

 

The months that passed after the declaration of fortification went fast, surprisingly. It took rather little time to recall the majority of the deployed forces, and even less time to retrofit the designated buildings for fortresses.

 

The victory was near, everyone could feel it. There was little activity from the Geoloid, and the cities were nearly unbreachable. There was nothing that could simply destroy the Jehact, now. 

 

...And then, the second wave came. Just like how the Jehact fell to the Eternal, they had begun to fall to the Geoloid. The size of the Geoloid fleets was immeasurable, dozens of large ships crushed the pitiful Jehact forces. The Jehact have always been unlucky when it comes to hostile comebacks, and now this spells the doom of the Jehact.

 

**ELSEWHERE, AN ENIGMATIC FORCE ALIGNS. THE STRUCTURE SHIFTS.**

 

Deep in the depths of space above the planet below, a hand extends out to a massive space station. Carefully, canisters of a material labeled “CATALYZED ETERNIUM” are open to the atmosphere, starting violent chemical reactions with the air. Then, the hand forces the station in its entirety down, it flinging towards the planet below.

 

The station turns into a blue fireball, catalyzed eternium and the atmosphere crashing together in many tiny explosions, getting closer and closer to the ground. Above the station, the eyes of a behemoth’s soul blazes down upon the planet, cosmic retribution ensured.

 

**ON THE FALLEN PLANET**

 

It was hopeless. We were too weak. Our fleets scattered, cities burning and millions dying. We were in a hopeless daydream, we’re never going back to what we once were. If only we had run away from our planet when the Eternal vanished, if only-

 

_ The surface is split the the collision of a fallen space station and the ground, a blue fireball reaching hundreds of kilometers high. The crust of the planet splits, and the impact site of the station leaves a gaping hole in the planet, the planet’s mantle & core visible. _

 

_ The planet splits to pieces, its component parts flying off into space, some debris hitting the shields of a massive starship, and a single humanoid figure staring down at their handiwork, slim spacesuit protecting the enigmatic figure from the cosmic wreckage. Tattooed on the suit is the word “ZENITH OF FALLEN EMPIRES”, and under it the skintight suit is labeled “Iota” _

 

_ Gazing down upon his genocide, Iota closes his eyes for a moment, and then vanishes in a flash of light. _

 

_ The Culmination soon after vanishes in a FTL jump. _

 

**THE DREAM NEARS, AND EARTH’S FUTURE IS IN HIS HANDS.**

 

**Well, that’s a wrap for today. Kappa’s gonna be** **_very_ ** **different from all the chapters so far, for Iota’s past will be revealed, and a bridge to Earth shalt be constructed.**

 

**WHAT IS TO COME:**

_ Time is but a dream. Time is but a dream. Time is but a dream. Time is nothing more than a nullified memory, and Unix shall reach for the stars. Rise, Eternal, my Scion. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fear the dream.  
> Fear the blight.  
> We will venture  
> Into everlasting night
> 
> Cast along the dark  
> Into the maws of silent shark  
> We finally see  
> What we were meant to bee.
> 
> < UPDATE IN AROUND 2 DAYS FROM NOW, MAYBE SOONER. NO PROMISES. >


	11. Kappa: Iota Begins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Iota is reborn.
> 
> ...THE VILE ONES WILL FALL UNDER THE GRIP OF THE ETERNAL, EVEN GIANTS FALL. BUT THE ETERNAL? THE ETERNAL CANNOT.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time is but a dream.

**Well… Last chapter was a bit different.**

 

**Uh… Cosmic genocide, woohoo?**

 

**Hm. I think I know what to do.**

 

**Kaold, engage Scionship Fate protocol Sigma-Delta-Iota-Nox.**

 

**_ENGAGING F.A.T.E. ARRAY_ **

**_SHIFTING COSMIC MATTER_ **

**_SHIFTING ENIGMATIC RELAYS_ **

**_ADAPTING UNIVERSE TO HEDONISTIC NEEDS_ **

**_AWAKENING DESIRE TO EXPAND_ **

**_THE F.A.T.E. IS IN YOUR HANDS._ **

 

**Okay, back to a more serious note, you’re getting backstory for Iota! And this chapter isn’t a Intermission, so it actually adds directly to the story!**

 

**Alright, That’s all from me, folks.**

 

**_INTO THE NIGHTMARE_ **

  
  


**Scion, you must not fall. You are the finale of the Eternal, and you are our dark star.**

  
  


A figure rose from the cryonic hypersleep pod that they were in. The edges of their vision blurred as they rise from their everlasting slumber. It was a Eternal, nominally taller than an exceptionally tall adult, but the structure of their face suggests that they are only around halfway through the journey to adulthood.

 

Yet, his facial expression is not one of a teenager. It is one of a hardened war veteran, who has witnessed a century of brutal conflict. He gazed confusedly at himself for a moment, before reading the name tag attached to his body.

 

“Unix Tetract”

 

_ Oh, it must be another dream again. _ Yet, the dreamer’s vessel was far too apathetic to go any further.

 

Unix walked in a regal hallway to Eternal standards, while all Eternal architecture is considered absolutely beautiful to the vast majority of lifeforms, this specific hallway makes describing it as ‘perfect’ just not good enough. For an Eternal, it was simply beautiful.

 

Ceasing his walking at the end of the hall, a door blocking his way. Gazing up to the name above the door reads…

 

“VOIDHOLDER KAOLD ABYSS”

 

_ This hallway was very unnecessary. _ The dreamer declared. Yet, their voice did not course into Unix. Unix simply waited at the door for a few moments, its heavy doors opening swiftly.

 

The room in front of Unix is one that he knows so well. No light except for the dozens of holographic screens and monitors, In the center of the room is a large revolving chair with the figure of a very frail man in rather impressive clothing. The Voidholder was expecting Unix, and Unix already knew.

 

“Welcome back, Unix. I appreciate you going all the way from the Fracture of Greatness to Eternis. I know that it took you a short while.” the Ruler warmly greeted Unix.

 

“Voidholder Abyss, I will always respond to your calls, especially urgent messages that request my presence in person.” Unix declared.

 

“There is no need for such formality, Tetract. The situation is far too dire to slow ourselves down.” the Voidholder said swiftly.

 

“Very well, Kaold. What is this urgent message you have reserved for me, then?”

 

The voidholder begins with “Let’s get right onto the topic.”

 

Kaold continued. “I see potential within you, Unix. I know that we are doomed to stagnate, for all change inevitably leads to it. You will be our guiding light Long Later, Unix.”

 

“I do not understand, Voidholder Abyss.” Unix said, though his face shows surprise instead of confusion.

 

“Argh… Again with the formality! What I mean, is that we have an incoming Age of Stagnation, and we will not be strong enough to fight off every little threat fast enough. We are a behemoth, but we are also lethargic.”

 

The Voidholder continued. “The Finale of the previous cycle is no more, and we absolutely need a new one. I see potential within you, and I believe that you are to become the next Finale of the Eternal Empire, Unix.”

 

Unix’s face turned to minor discomfort. “Voidholder Abyss, are you sure that I am fit for such a duty? I am merely one Eternal, while the Zenith still lives. What exactly do you see within me?”

 

The Voidholder smiled. “Just because the exterior is frail does not mean its interior’s potential is the same. There lies power within you that even I have difficulty comprehending, above any Zenith of before.”

 

“Kaold, are you still certain? I am not sure I am ready for such a duty.”

 

“Unix, you were from your genesis exceptional, even for the standards for my children. I am certain you are ready, even though you have yet to achieve full maturity. I know you are ready. Trust me, you are capable.”

 

“I… I understand. Thank you, Voidholder Abyss, thank you for granting me the chance of being my kin’s Aegis for the rest of Eternity. I accept the status of Finale.”

 

“Then we are to begin the rebirth of you.”

 

“Rebirth? I utterly have no idea what you’re talking about.”

 

The Voidholder types something into one holoscreen, and erases the profile of something, before rewriting it.

 

“Unix Tetract is no more, you are to adapt. Rise, my Scion. Unix is a Singer to all now. I declare you Iota, for now on. Now, I shall show you your new starship, Iota.”

 

“I have to say I like the new name. Rest in the stars, Unix. Long live me...” Unix, now Iota laughed a small amount before regaining his composure. The two Eternal walked into the hallway, the massive door closing behind them.

 

Both Eternal entered cryonic hypersleep pods, and drifted to a slumber…

 

When the both Eternal re-awoke, they were in a space station far above Eternis, the planet below being a massive planet-wide city, where skyscrapers were the norm. The buildings went so high that if the very top of some of the buildings were cut off, they would be in a semi-stable low Eternis orbit.

 

Kaold lead the way to a dock, Iota following closely behind. Upon entering the room, Iota stared in wonder at the starship.

 

The ship was a impressive size, had dozens of marks of the Eternal all across it, and had a beautiful pitch black paint on it. The thrusters of the starship were cleverly hidden, and the ship looked much akin to a low-polygon spaceship. But this only increased its beauty, somehow. Iota knew what it was.

 

The starship of the Voidholder himself.

 

Kaold spoke up. “This was once my starship, the Zenith’s Path. I am passing it down to you, as I will be getting myself a new one. The starship has the standard Catalyzed Eternium reactor, is equipped with the latest revision of Temporal Shielding, and the entire ship’s hull is made of self-mending Eternium Nanoalloy.”

 

Kaold took a deep breath, and then continued. “The starship also has dual Sundown missiles, a standard amplified Eternium laser, and the Firewall guided object defence system. It should last you for… Well, eternity.”

 

Iota looked… Very happy. “Thank you, Kaold. Now I must find a good name for it...”

 

“You are free to keep its current name if you wish.” the Voidholder announced.

 

Iota dismissed this. “No, I mustn't. I know the perfect name for this.”

 

“This starship, is the beginning of my departure from the Eternal, I will now be an interstellar nomad… Wait! I got it!”

 

“I declare this starship, the Nomad.”

 

Then, the dream began to fall to ashes. The dreamer was left in Iota’s body, gazing out into an infinite abyss. Then, the Voidholder appeared.

 

The Voidholder(?) spoke. “Child, why do you commence incursion opon my mind?”

 

Iota(?) spoke up “I didn’t mean to! I just went to sleep and-”

 

The Voidholder turned into the form of Iota, and the false Iota turned to the form of a child. “Hold on… I know that feeling. I know exactly who you are. Get out of my mind, this is your reckoning.”

  
  


**IT’S OVER, IS IT? YES. THE DREAM IS OVER.**

  
  


Steven woke up in a cold sweat, he had no idea what just happened. How did he access the memory of someone he never met? Was this a new-

 

No, he’s just paranoid after Garnet’s wedding… Take a deep breath, everything went fine. It’s been 7 days, everything’s fine…

 

Steven then looks at the bubble shield he accidentally summoned in his sleep. Except it doesn’t look like a bubble, it’s made of a bunch of pentagons. That’s strange.

 

The bubble disappears with the pentagons shrinking and then vanishing. Steven then notices that it’s a bit too bright, his clock reads 3AM. So what's going on?

 

Steven looks out his window, and sees nothing. He gets out of bed and runs over to the door to look at the beach…

 

He wished he didn’t.

 

A behemoth starship is in the skies, easily multiple times larger than the Diamond’s arm ships. It was utterly massive… 

 

The other Gems (excluding Peridot and Lapis) were gazing at the behemoth starship, weapons summoned but at a loss of what to do.

 

On the side of the ship was a collection of alien symbols, but Steven somehow knew exactly what it spelled.

 

“CULMINATION OF DESIRE”

 

Then, a beam fired from the ship, and a figure stood tall amongst the dust the beam kicked up. They were taller than Garnet, their height was inhuman, at least 9 feet tall. The dust settled, and what looked like a human stood tall, body covered by sleek & thin space suit.

 

The man gazed at the Gems in front of him, although not taking much notice to Steven’s presence.

 

“And here I thought the abyssal Geoloid would never breach the System Barrier. You will burn for this.”

 

The man rushed forward, faster than what a human should be able to go at, purple translucent tendrils raised at the ready.

  
  


**AND FATE SHIFTS.**

  
  


**Honestly, the chapter was planned to end right at the arrival of the Culmination, but I wanted to leave you at a even bigger cliffhanger! Now the story REALLY begins to shift!**

  
  


**WHAT IS TO COME:**

_ The battle begins. Then there is a calm before the storm, before Reunited takes its course. Boy, I almost feel bad for the Diamonds, now... _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SOON, THE GAME ENDS, AND ABSOLUTION BRINGS UPON NEW DAWN. OR IS IT THE BEGINNING? ONE ENDS, ONE BEGINS.


	12. Lambda: Calm before the rage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is a calm before the rage.
> 
> ...THE WAR BETWEEN JEHACT AND ETERNAL ARE OLD, OLDER THAN THE PITIFUL WAR OF THE GEOLOID AND ETERNAL. AND NOW, WE VENTURE BACK TO THOSE DAYS, AND THE RETRIBUTION THE ETERNAL BROUGHT.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am genuinely sorry the chapter took so long to release, but we should get back onto normal schedule after this! Enjoy the longest chapter I've ever posted on any website before!

**All world share one truth.**

**That nothing is immutable.**

**Yet, that truth is shattered…**

 

**...Once the Eternal arrive.**

**All hatred, all fear, all sorrow.**

**Vanished. In a single move of a hand.**

 

**All desire must be fulfilled.**

**The wants of the many outweigh the needs of the few.**

**The desires of I await, for my kin are in need.**

 

**YOUR NEEDS ARE YOUR WANTS.**

 

**THE WANTS OF THE MANY OUTWEIGH THE NEEDS OF THE FEW.**

 

**HEDONISM LEADS TO EFFICIENCY.**

 

**THAT IS AN ABSOLUTE.**

 

**WHEN WE ARE ALL IN COMPLETE CONFIDENCE WITH EACH OTHER, AND THOSE WHO GAZE UPON US**

 

**WE WILL BE IN TRUE UNITY.**

  
  


**< = YOUR WORLD WILL FAIL = >**

**< PERSPECTIVE: ** ~~**UNIX TETRACT** ~~ **IOTA >**

  
  


I felt  _ her _ presence.

 

She was supposed to be a  _ entropy-ridden  _ **_singer_ ** _. _

 

Yet there she was, incursion upon my mind.

 

I cast her out, I plotted a course for Solaris Gamma.

 

I was always told there was a calm before the rage.

 

But there is no calm anymore.

 

Apathy, turning to star-shattering rage.

 

In orbit of Solaris Gamma, I donned the suit of the Zenith, and beckoned the Zenith Penthulan to follow me.

 

She was deployed first, but went horribly off course into the nearby sea. I will have to commence the assault myself.

 

“Kaold. Engage Zenith suit activation, Manual activation.” I beckoned to the artificial intelligence the ship hosted.

 

“Very well, Eternal Finale. Manual mode activated.” a synthetic voice boomed out.

 

“Rune sequence Alpha” I started.

_ Success. Rune of Ascension activated. _

**MY LIMITS BEGIN TO CEASE.**

 

“Rune sequence Beta”

_ Success: Rune of Absolution activated. _

**I MUST NOT LET MY KIN BURN OUT, I AM THE ETERNAL EMBER.**

 

“Rune sequence Gamma” I preemptively wince before the activation. This is going to be painful.

_ Success: Rune of Temporus activated. _

**TIME IS NOT LINEAR. ENDURE THE PAIN, YOU WILL GET USED TO IT.**

 

“Rune sequence Delta”

_ Success: Rune of Unity activated. _

**YOU ARE ALREADY SO CONNECTED, UNIX. COGNITION ONLY EXPANDS.**

 

“Rune sequence Epsilon”

_ Success: Rune of Eternos activated. _

**I AM THE MATCH THAT SET THE OCEAN OF GASOLINE ON FIRE.**

**I AM THE WARHEAD THAT SHATTERED THE PLANET IN TWO.**

**I AM THE STAR THAT BROUGHT US TO ETERNAL LIFE, AMONGST DARKNESS.**

 

“Rune sequence Omega” I finish.

_ Success: Zenith’s Grip activated. May the stars be yours to shape. _

**Cognition expands. I can control myself. The Zenith is mine to hold, I can almost feel the interstellar particles of dust around the starship. Almost. I can feel all paths converge, there is no uncertainty.**

 

**There is only me.**

 

**The Absolute is in my path, but it too will fall under my crushing grip.**

 

“Kaold, let’s make this incursion impressive. Deploy via Catalyst array.” I loudly boomed out to the AI once more.

 

“Ethereum essence captured. Engaging full force deployment.” the synthetic voice boomed across the ship.

 

The feeling of myself slipping into darkness across the warp is gone, I am forever whole. I am too cohesive, too strong to be separated.

 

My sensors pick up multiple beings, four Geoloid. The dust settles, the dust clinging only onto the environment, my suit a bulwark against simplistic ancient rubble.

 

I should have expected it, but the sight of three Geoloid fills my vision with nothing less than absolute fury. My blood boils, my eyes are set alight. My vision is clear, but my mind is clouded.

 

I know what to say, reality collapses to it inevitably. I get up from my kneel, and am able to restrain my voice to what used to be a whisper, but is now more of an indoor voice.

 

“And here I though the abyssal Geoloid would never breach the System Barrier.”

 

For a few milliseconds I consider my next few words, I must make my point clear as the void.

 

“ _ You will burn for this. _ ”

 

My Tendrils in a split second flow from my body, and I rush forward at a speed that would impress me, if it weren’t for my blinding rage.

 

I focus on the… Unusually small soldier first, fist raised to scatter the purple Geoloid’s shards against the ground…

 

...Yet, another form gets in the way, my fist breaking through some sort of light construct, and then the upper torso of the victim, a gust of dust filling my vision, a Pearl falling to the ground. I react first, and grab the Pearl, before rushing backwards…

  
  


**AND PERSPECTIVE SHIFTS.**

**< PERSPECTIVE: AMETHYST >**

  
  


I only had a split second to react before the mysterious alien rushed at me, fist raised to be brought down upon my Gem, but Pearl had gotten in the way, and the alien retreated before I could even think.

 

I nearly made a sarcastic remark before I noticed that Pearl wasn’t there, her gem wasn’t either. Then, I looked at the right hand of the being, Pearl in his grip. I nearly lost my own mind at the sight, they looking at the gem carefully, before I summoned my whip and tried to stop him from hurting her.

 

The whip hit him head on, and he flew back at least a few feet, dropping Pearl to the ground. Then, Garnet told me to “Wait here” and rushed to get Pearl’s gem to safety, but I wasn’t going to leave her alone with this… Thing!

 

I rushed to Garnet’s side, her giving me some disapproving look, but then going back to… Probably focus on getting Pearl.

 

...Man, this day did not go so well at all.

 

**PERSPECTIVE SHIFTS.**

**< PERSPECTIVE: ** ~~**PINK DIAMOND** **ROSE QUARTZ**~~ **STEVEN UNIVERSE >**

 

It was all a blur, but I clearly saw him grab Pearl’s gem faster than any human should be able to, I had to do something.

 

“I’m coming guys! Wait up!” I yelled, dropping from the porch and landing, then rushing in to help the others. I somehow caused this, I know it.

 

His glare shifts upon me for a split second, and all time seems to slow down in a literal sense.

 

He does not speak, but I hear his voice. “Do not approach, you are not a part of this. Leave, before you get hurt in the crossfire.” I ignored his words, and time sped back up as I charged in.

 

He raised his fist at Amethyst again, and there would be no one to protect her. I summon my shield, and get ready for the impact.

 

Instead, my senses are overwhelmed with a mix of apathy, hatred, and confusion as I am flung back, before his voice rips through my mind painfully. “YOU.”

 

**PERSPECTIVE SHIFTS.**

**< PERSPECTIVE: ** ~~**RUBY** **SAPPHIRE**~~ **GARNET >**

 

I can’t predict him. Every time I try to use my Future Vision on him, or anything related to him everything just turns foggy. But the moment Steven summoned his shield the future became crystal clear to me, clearer than any moment I existed. It wanted to  _ hurt _ Steven. It wanted to  _ kill _ Steven.

 

The fist, instead of slowing down at the sight of the child sped up, Steven's shield being shattered as he and Amethyst are flung back, him starting the charge towards Steven. I grab his right arm, throwing him towards the ocean. I feel something pierce Sapphire’s gem, him flung to the ocean.

 

When I gaze upon the cold gem, I witness it severely cracked, my form already distorting. Then, I am pierced once again by a translucent purple tendril, disassembling Sapphire cleanly, and then I ceased to be.

 

**PERSPECTIVE IS INHERITED.**

**< PERSPECTIVE: RUBY >**

 

The first thing I see as me again is Sapphire’s shards floating in the air, and looking to my left a confused face on the monster! But what happened next, I did not expect. Not even Sapphire could expect it…

 

“You. You can’t be… You cannot be Geoloid Empire… They would...” and with that, Sapphire’s gem comes back together, still heavily cracked, but whole, the gem somehow re-assembled.

 

Sapphire begins to reform… Oh my Stars! She isn’t shattered!

 

**PERSPECTIVE SHIFTS.**

**< PERSPECTIVE: IOTA >**

 

In a swift motion, I punish the strange Geoloid for her insolence, cleanly detaching specific molecules from the gem so that it would be cleanly, and perfectly cut into pieces.

 

But the form did not vanish, instead only a part of it, the other half forming into a Ruby.

 

I do a double take, so what? It was a ruby fusion…

 

No, that’s not a Ruby I’m wielding. It’s something…

 

It’s a  _ Sapphire. _

 

No. No.  **NO.**

 

It is not possible! It is illogical!

 

Unless…

 

They were not aligned with the Geoloid.

 

I could not even focus on what I was uttering, I had to undo my mistake. I mend the gemstone back together, undoing all but the initial pierce to latch onto the matter.

 

I collapse, a maelstrom of my mind, no longer clouded by my pure fury berating me for my brashness. Then, I stand up. Gazing upon the distorted form of the Sapphire, latching onto the ruby, the Fusion returning to sight.

 

“I don’t know who you are, or what your goal here is, but you do not mean harm to the Humans here, correct? A sane Geoloid Empire drone would not allow an act such as the existence of you.” My voice booming loud and clear, my high on the might of the Zenith not ending just yet.

 

The Fusion gazed for a moment, before standing down somewhat. The Sapphire component must know that I no longer have the will to fight, and then speaking. Abyss… Why must the Precognitive distorter be tied to emotion... “We are the Crystal Gems, we are here to protect the Earth, and I am Garnet.”

 

I smile within, Garnet is absolutely not just another drone of the Geoloid Monarchs. “I greet you… Ashamedly cordially. I am Iota, of the Eternal Empire. I am certain you have never heard of my kin, I believe that your Diamonds rather dislike the fact that they are not the only behemoths in the ocean. Nevertheless, I apologise for my…” I need to think about how to end the sentence without committing suicide via my own words.

 

“Belligerence.” I finish.

 

Garnet seems to smile somewhat, It’s definite that she’s overcome the precognitive distorter. “You’re wondering how we’re here, right? I can fill you in.” and thus, we walked into a small Human residential building… How in the abyss did anyone accept me into their home just after I committed murder? My resurrection does not change the fact I made the Sapphire a Singer.

  
  


**SOME TIME PASSES.**

**< Not very good at writing other characters, so they’re probably a bit OOC, deepest apologies. >**

  
  


_“No. I will not accept that, admit that you are attempting to fool me immediately, that story is so ridiculous that a Kaold unit would suffer a fatal error.”_ I boomed out, refusing to accept the idea that a _monarch_ would rebel against her own empire, millenia later fall in love with a _primitive_ and give birth to a _non-living/organic_ _hybrid_. No. It is impossible.

 

The child being the Scion of Rose made more sense when he healed the fusion with his… Bodily fluids.

 

Yet, I have to reconsider when the supposed child of the monarch reveals the specific cut of gem that is no longer present. I could feel the echoes of her dead mind course through him.

 

“Well I’ll be a Singer, you aren’t trying to trick me.”

 

The Child, Steven responds “Why would we try to trick you?”

 

Hmph. He is uneducated. I guess I’ll have to uncloak a small portion of the Eternal knowledge.

 

“The Geoloid are… Well, the Geoloid are not the most trustworthy to a non-Geoloid-”

 

“What’s a Geoloid?” Steven asks I respond with “A Geoloid is one of your lightform friends-”

 

“Oh! A gem!” the youthful one interrupts.

 

“Oh, sorry.” I take a moment to think of how to continue this. Thank the Alphact Garnet told me about the Gems... “Now back to the story. The Geo- Er, Gems aren’t considered to be very trustworthy to most other lifeforms. The Gem Empire are a genocidal people, focused on the annihilation of all other lifeforms, often out of fear of the unknown. In this case, it seems to just be genocidal expansionism.” I can feel the child ready himself to speak.

 

I preempt the child. “Expansionism is the want to expand one’s territory or borders, often for the acquisition of more resources.” Steven oohs at that, and I continue.

 

“I can either give you a long or short explanation of the origin of the Eternal in this universe, and why you’ve not heard of the Eternal before.” Steven’s face reads that he wants the long version.

 

“Alright, alright… ” but Steven speaks first, a thought suddenly appearing in his head. “Wait, don’t you have another language? How do you understand us? How do we understand you?” Amethyst had agreed with a “I was thinking that too.”

 

“Simple. I am speaking in my language, I’m just imposing my mind upon yours, so that you can understand Simple Eternan, I could stop it so you could hear it properly.” Garnet nods at the idea, and I withdraw my tendrils from the minds of those nearest, as I speak out loud.

 

**< THIRD PERSON PERSPECTIVE >**

 

_ “Vish telok’val Eta x’ tun redact’zold regolith” _ is what emerges from Iota’s mouth, some of it spoken, but some of it flowing into the minds of the others. Then, Iota reconnects his mind with those nearby.

 

“The number 7 is a very interesting number. That is what I said.” Iota declares. Steven seems to be quite in amazement. Iota speaks again. “Now, shall I begin the story of Eternity?” Iota asks, everyone seems very ready. “Before I begin, know that this information is only hypothetical; Our true origin is unfortunately unknown, it has been far too long since the genesis of the Eternal to remember everything. I will do the best I can.”

 

Iota clears his voice, and begins. “Long, long ago. Far, far back before this universe’s genesis, one people stood tall, searching across the stars in search of the Divine. Fate gripped us by the throat, and we destroyed our own home planet in our childish desire for an absolute meaning. We marched across the stars, in search of the Absolute.”

 

“We never found it. We collapsed, and soon after embraced the truth. We were the undisputed masters of all reality. A revolution of sorts followed, technology soared into the sky, we intermingled with the local xeno species, and embraced truth.“

 

Steven spoke up “Wait, what does this have to do with the Gems?”

 

Iota’s face turned blank, and then ever so slightly embarrassed, his apathy more than strong enough to fight it off, however. “My apologies. I tend to go on long monologues. I will get to the important part soon.”

 

*ahem* “We stayed united with the other lifeforms for a while, until the Stars had begun to die out. Soon, we were trapped around Red Dwarfs, a darkening universe making escape harder and harder. It was fated for us to die eventually, even if it were trillions of years in the future...”

 

“...That was, until we accidentally discovered the mystical element ‘Eternium’, a perfect element that can be amalgamated with every other element in the universe to create powerful compounds. Some compounds would make an incredibly hard but malleable metal with extreme temperature resistance, known as Eternium Titanium Alloy.”

 

“Other compounds could become flawless conductors of heat and electricity, resulting in zero energy loss during transfers, known as Eternium Copper Amalgam.”

 

“Some compounds could contain extreme amounts of electrical energy, a terawatt could be safely stored in a single kilogram of battery, being Eternium Lithium Composite.”

 

“And finally… Some could be used to generate endless amounts of energy through distorting the very fabric of reality itself, creating  an extreme amount of energy, Eternium Dioxide. A breathable gas that, when electrically charged creates a small distortion in space, which a generator could be attached to for limitless energy potential. Turns out the stuff also affects your genetic code, which could make life nearly unkillable.”

 

“One cycle, we cracked the code to bridging to other realities with Eternium, one being a reality full of a enigmatic element that could bind with life to gain telepathic abilities, and allow something to live when its body has died. That element is now called Ethereum. It is what my Tendrils are made of, an extension of my own will.” Iota cast his Tendrils into view, the translucent purple extensions 

 

“Over many universes we expanded the sciences, perfecting Eternium, eventually discovering Catalyzed Eternium; the purest form of Eternium. Catalyzed Eternium has no imperfections, and has extreme energy potential. In an accident involving Catalyzed Eternium, we destroyed an entire solar system in our largest current universe, while also discovering a whole new reality, the Eternos Planes.”

 

“The Eternos Planes are a collection of loosely connected realities separated from all other realities, composed of entirely Catalyzed Eternium. Simply put, all Eternal moved to the mystical Eternos Planes, living for all eternity with all desires filled at their whims, us all ‘gods’ of our own reality.”

 

“Oh, right. The Gem stuff… Yeah. So, eventually, after many,  _ many  _ universes, we stumbled upon your universe. Pretty typical habitable universe, really. So, we expanded into it. Colonized a couple million galaxies, subjugated a few countless civilizations.”

 

“Eventually, we met a foe that had somehow found Eternium early in its life. They waged war upon us. We only won because of our immeasurable might, honestly. In the middle of the war, the Geoloid colonized the galaxy we were warring in. They helped cause the utter collapse of the enemy empire, and then tried to take us down. We made them pay dearly, and kicked them out of the galaxy.”

 

“Over the next few eons we went in and out of war with them, eventually reaching a point of extreme stagnancy, where we are unable to react to anything outside our borders. I was eventually given the status of preserver of the Eternal, and now I’m here, almost killing the Crystal Gems! Ha ha!” Iota laughed a small amount at the last part, before regaining his composure.

 

“That’s it, that’s the entire story. You would literally be singers for trillions of years if I went into every little detail of our story.”

 

Steven spoke up. “What does Singer mean?”

 

Iota raised his eye at this, before remembering something. “Oh, right. You’re not Eternal… Apologies. A singer is what you would consider to be dead. Well, a body’s death. A Eternal’s mind is incapable of dying, we’re just evicted from this reality and forced to re-materialize in the Eternos Planes. So, a singer to you is just… Dead.” Iota finishes.

 

Garnet suddenly stands up, Iota feeling foreboding coming from her. Iota then asks “Starborn, what do you foresee?”

 

Garnet speaks loud. “They’re coming.”

 

Iota feels the fringes of anger course through him. “Specify! Who is coming?” Iota’s voice boomed to a point that it hurt Steven’s ears.

 

What Garnet says brings back the fury that was present when Iota first arrived. “The Diamonds. They’re almost here!”

 

Iota stands up tall, face darkened, shadows wrapping around his eyes despite the positioning of the lighting. “I must go. I shalt return.” A hologram screen then appears by Iota’s raised right hand, and he speaks loud into it. “Culmination, activate Cognitive cloak. Geoloid Matriarchs inbound. Eternity Protocol is authorized. Ready deployment bay, authcode Sigma, Ta-” A flash of blue lightning strikes the location where Iota was, and Iota is gone.

 

Steven knows this isn’t good… Someone as strong as Iota fleeing from the Diamonds...

 

Steven rushes outside, and witnesses the Culmination vanishing from sight, a very weak yet massive shadow moving over the temple, moving toward the mountain, before the shadow vanishes from perception.

 

Then, Steven witnesses the Diamond ships descend upon Earth, the Gems readying themselves for the ships to land and the Diamonds to emerge, but the ships merely pass over them. Steven then gasps in realization what is happening. “They’re going for the cluster!”

 

Once the ships arrive at the point above the Cluster, the yellow arm ship rises intp the air, the Culmination suddenly emerging from its cloak, it casting a shadow upon the giant ship, the shadow easily being dozens of times larger than the pitiful in comparison ship, as the blue ship backs away from the behemoth starship, before a scream emerges from the ship.

 

**_“VI’KO KONAI X’ NOX!”_ ** a ear-piercing voice slowly screams, said voice not belonging to Iota, however. Then, the wave of the true words booming even louder through everyone’s minds.

 

**“YOUR** **EXISTANCE** **IS** **_NULL!_** **”** Iota’s voice rips through the minds of all, the fun truly beginning.

 

A massive laser is fired from the Culmination, the thumb of Yellow’s ship being cut cleanly off, while Blue Diamond’s ship flies towards the Crystal Temple. The ship soon after crashes it’s palm on the ground, and Blue Diamond is revealed from under it, looking somewhat angry, but also scared out of her life.

 

Blue Diamond speaks, yet her voice shaky and she glances towards the Culmination fearfully every few seconds, like she’s expecting it to shoot at her any second. “Rose… Rose Quartz. So you escaped Homeworld and cr… Crawled back here. This is Pi- Pink’s world!” Blue Diamond seems to lose her fear as she continues, driven by her anguish. “How dare you use it as your hiding place! Come! Answer for what you-” Blue Diamond is thrown off her balance as the ground is shook from the Culmination crashing into the nearby terrain, causing a short earthquake before the starship vanishes in a burst of purple lightning, appearing nearly four kilometers from where it once was.

 

Steven tries to speak up. “Blue Diamond, you have to listen to me! I didn’t shatter Pink Diamond. Pink Diamond is right here. Actually, it’s pretty interesting if you try to-”

 

Blue Diamond yells over Steven with a pathetic stutter of a “E- Enough!”, before throwing a ball of blue energy. The energy nearly hits Steven, but he then witnesses purple tendrils come forth from the ground, forming a near-black crystaline barrier that withstands the hit, then crumbling back into the ground. Blue steps back in genuine  _ fear _ for a moment, glancing around looking for someone, probably Iota, before calming slightly, the confrontation continuing.

 

**(Heads up, Pearl reformed in-between this upcoming scene and Yellow reaching the Crystal Temple.)**

 

In the skies, the Culmination’s hull splits opens in multiple places, a storm of thousands of jet-like starcraft blots out the sun, slicing Yellow Diamond’s ship as it tries (and fails) to avoid the lasers coming both from the Culmination and the strike ships that had just launched from it, Yellow Diamond preparing to make an emergency landing to hopefully survive the onslaught of the Culmination. Yellow Diamond prepares to rush towards Blue’s ship, as the ship jolts to a stop.

 

Yellow Diamond checks the cameras across her ship, before spotting Iota floating in the air, arm outstretched, holding the arm ship in place. The moment Yellow Diamond sees this, she begins to verbally panic at the sight of the Zenith focusing on her, before Iota’s face scrunches up in anger, and then in a fit of rage raises his hand up and casts it down in a throwing motion. Nothing happens…

 

Yet, three seconds later... 

 

Yellow Diamond’s ship is abruptly thrown by a phantom force towards Blue Diamond’s ship, crashing violently upon it, Blue Diamond being seemingly crushed under the ship. Yet, Yellow Diamond feels the Eternal’s presence fade, as she calms enough to force herself out of her ship. She then steps out, calmed, even in joy that the Culmination appears to be gone. She then focuses on the Crystal gems below, leaping down and uncovering her fellow Matriarch from beneath.

 

Yellow notices not an army of Gems, but just four Gems, a Pearl, a Fusion, and a Amethyst and Rose Quartz.

 

Steven tries to speak up. “Wait! You don’t have to do this! Listen to me! I’m the one you’re missing! I’m Pink Diamond!” and this breaks Yellow, as she wordlessly charges toward Steven, readying to crush him. Instead of summoning a shield to defend himself, he stares at the approaching doom, before Yellow feels the extreme presence of something else right beneath her.

 

Yellow’s foot crashes down upon a purple barrier, Steven seeing a tall figure casting the barrier with a single hand, the other at his side. Yellow is then thrown back dozens of feat as Iota forces his hand forward, dissipating the barrier. Yellow lands on her back, and she scrambles up. Blue gazes at Iota like she is about to meet her end, but all Iota does is gaze slightly confusedly at Blue, and then summons a holoscreen, a scan of Blue’s gem appearing on the screen, as Iota gazes with apathy-veiled confusion. “I know who you are, Betact.” Iota gestures at Yellow. “But who are  _ you? _ ” Iota asks Blue Diamond dismissively, like she was simply not worth his time. Blue speaks up. “I am Blue Diamond! Who are  _ you? _ ”

 

Iota blinks at the vain attempt at mockery. Or, attempts. Iota soon freezes in place, as he notices that his left eye is refusing to open, and he feels a warm liquid ooze slowly from it. Iota is bleeding. From his eye. Because of  **them.**

 

Iota apathetic stare turns to a death glare that could quite literally kill, him calmly uttering “The one that shalt bring you to Singing.” as Iota faces an open palm forward, an arc of purple electricity ready to strike, yet Steven begs Iota to not shatter the two. “Iota, please don’t hurt them! Let me convince them!” Iota takes a few seconds to react, before without speaking proceeding to angrily nod and throws his other hand forward, closes his hands into fists and the brings them in the direction of the ground, the Diamonds gripped by phantom forces and forced upon their knees due to this motion.

 

“Speak, Starborn. My patience runs thin.” Iota seemingly apathetically tells Steven. Yet, Steven can feel that the apathy is just a facade. His intent flows off of him, his hatred nearly affecting Steven.

 

Steven begins calmly, now that he knows he has some time to think. “Yellow Diamond, Blue Diamond. Please, listen to me. Pink Diamond wasn’t shattered, she’s right here! I am Pink Diamond!”

 

Yellow’s face contorts to anger, before turning back to a calmer face at the sight of Iota’s star-shattering glare. Blue, however, simply does not seem to believe him. “This is just an attempt to make us forget your crime against Pink!” Blue yells out. Blue’s mouth is soon after closed shut with the near-black purple crystals that protected Steven. Yellow says nothing in attempt to not be shut up, yet Iota knows she will crack soon, and then she can be given punishment.

 

Steven looks to Iota, said man silently gesturing him to continue, thus he begins again. “You see, Pink wasn’t shattered, taking the form of Rose Quartz permanently after faking her shattering. Then Rose Quartz gave up that form to create a new life with my dad; me.”

 

Yellow’s rage boils over as she yells “You are lying! You deserve to be sha- Mmph!” Yellow is soon gagged too, this time noticeably less comfortable and efficient, Iota’s rivalry likely the reason for this. Iota calmly says “Silence.” as he does this, the rage still visible in Iota’s eyes. Yellow would not try to retort even if she wasn’t shut up, however.

 

While his facial expression seems calm, Iota’s eyes declare he is reaching his wit’s end as Steven tries one last time to convince the Diamonds. “Please, you have to believe me. We have nothing to gain from lying to you.” The binding from the Diamond’s mouths come undone one last time, them still forced in place by Iota’s doing. Iota then says “Choose your words  _ carefully _ .”

 

Blue angrily speaks up “You… You’re trying to-”, but Iota speaks over them.

 

“I have run out of patience.” Iota abruptly declares, while his tone is layered with apathy, his eyes betray his voice, fires glowing amongst the sunny day. “I seek retribution, retribution for the Songs you have forced my kin to sing, for the songs you have forced countless innocent lifeforms to sing. Over the eons, you brought many to the end of ascension. And now, you suffer punishment for extinguishing the embers of the Lesser. And now, I finally show you the might of Eternity. I have risen, and you have fallen.” Iota opens his hands wide, and then closes them in a violent gesture, purple lightning arcing from his hands, his ambition being forced upon the Lesser.

  
  


**...And fate shifts.**

 

**Wow it took a while to get this chapter up! By the way, how many words is this chapter?**

 

**Over** **4.4K Words?!**

**(Spongebob dramatic music here)**

**Wait, 13 pages?! Damn!**

 

**And that doesn’t include the Author’s Notes, I don’t consider these part of the story.**

  
  


**!!! OOF !!!**

 

**Last minute addition! I was just looking at my outliner to see what I’m going to do next chapter, and prep for more chapters, and I revealed the origin of Iota way too soon, the reveal was planned for chapter 13, so I’ll have to do something else. Oh, the chapter that continues this current series of events will hopefully include the Zenith Penthulan as long as I remember. We’re going back to the past, Samurai Jack.**

 

**Back to the origin of the Eternal-Jehact war of Mutual Absolution.**

 

**!!! OOF !!!**

 

 

~~**Yes, I know the characters may be a bit OOC, especially the Diamonds.** ~~

 

~~**But (on the diamond topic), what if you were gazing upon the face of a being that could fling a gigantic arm starship with just a single hand, image how easy it would be for him to just crush you to death without another thought!** ~~

 

**I tried to make everyone a bit more in-character, primarily after the Diamonds arrived. Iota is especially calmer, and his timeless age would logically mean he is able to hold in his anger better, right?**

 

**Oh, and the Diamonds fear the Eternal due to the Eternal being pretty damn powerful. I mean, have you SEEN the intermission chapter? The Eternal are powerhouses, and should be avoided or surrendered to.** **Oh, and the Culmination a couple hundred kilometers long, or is a over a thousand? I’ll have to check chapter Zeta.**

 

~~**Oh, wow. The Culmination is THOUSANDS of kilometers long. I should probably tone that down, but I don’t know the size of the Diamond ships, so I’ll probably keep it its current size. That’s a couple thousand miles, for those in the US like me. Really, really big. But, it does give you a good idea of how powerful the Eternal are.** ~~

 

**Dear god, the Culmination would be multiple states long. I’m going to have to REALLY tone down the size of the Culmination. Just consider it around** **_18_ ** **kilometers long, still massive, but not of a cosmic scale. Oh, and I’m going to update the chapter that features the behemoth starship.**

 

**Oh, and the Culmination of Desire isn’t a warship, it’s a ship designed to cross universes that displaces time instead of space to move. It just happens so that the ship’s reality breaching lasers are capable of seamlessly distorting matter in the current universe.**

 

**Okay, that’s it from me, and the largest author’s note to date!**

  
  


**WHAT IS TO COME:**

 

_ Back, far before the Geoloid-Eternal War of Punishment, the Jehact at its peak of Ascension challenges the Eternal Empire, before the Diamond Authority comes to ruin the party, beginning the everlasting war, and awakening the behemoth from its slumber. The Zenith falls, and stagnation begins.  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cliffhangers, huh?
> 
> I ensure you all that by chapter 15 we will have a continuation of this, but I am going to stick to my Outliner.
> 
> Hm, maybe I should put the WHAT IS TO COME part here, huh?
> 
> Yeah, I'll probably do that if I consider it to be worth my time.


	13. Mu: Birth of Eternos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> THE MAN WHO SINGLE-HANDEDLY TRANSFORMED THE HUMAN TO THE ETERNAL IS BORN,

**Hello again.**

 

**The machine of writing’s starting to lose a bit of steam, so I may be delaying updates of chapters even further than the every other day schedule so far..**

 

**One thing I will hold myself to is that most chapter uploads will have a 2-3 day gap in between chapters at the moment, and I will hopefully not go any slower than 1 update a week, with the exception of some short-term break (no more than 1-2 week[s]) as I enjoy updating the story.**

 

**Now, we get into the meat of the chapter.**

 

**Instead of what I had originally planned; the war between Jehact and Eternal, I decided to write a origin story of the Eternal’s discovery of many worlds…**

 

**THE ETERNOS PLANES.**

 

**...It is time to put back on the facade.**

  
  


**< = LONG, LONG, LONG AGO. BEFORE THE ETERNAL FLED FROM THEIR DYING UNIVERSE... = >**

**< = THE DAY ETERNOS WAS BORN. = >**

  
  


It was a calm, quiet, and cold night. Of course, it is always cold and quiet. And dark. Oh so dark.

 

A station, masked by the starless universe glowed dimly, thermal radiation being the only light emitted. It was a behemoth of a star station, a hundred kilometers across, nothing but pitch black surrounding said station. The mark all across the station was of truth and rationality.

 

Because Science never stops.

 

This cycle, a ageless being walks apathetically across the halls of the behemoth station, his body frail, his facial expression relaxed, and his eyes wrapped with synthetic cloth, translucent purple tendrils being his eyes instead.

 

His name, forgotten to history. He was born on the station, with the knowledge that he would be the catalyst for the greatest Eternal experiment in all history, the very fate of all Humanity rested upon the experiments involving him and the wondrous element Eternium.

 

If what happens today goes wrong, he will die on the station, too, and the fate of the Human will be sealed.

 

Upon entering a room labeled “ETERNIUM 417-B CHAMBER”, a dozen scientists gaze upon the living test subject. The wisest and tallest of the crowd greets the young experiment. “Welcome back, f-1-2-4, or should I say Lambda?” the facial expression of the wise scientist is welcoming, like he is seeing an old friend yet again.

 

The ageless etheric, f124 responds in a joking tone. “I am quite welcomed, huh? I thought being the future of all Humanity wouldn’t help me much socially....” The experiment thinks for a moment, and then gets right to business. “Overseer Telo, what shalt we do this cycle?”

 

Telo, whose name is based off of Telomere, stands even more upright than he previously was pulls a lever to his right, then gesturing f124 to a seat in the back of the room, shrouded in darkness by the mysterious lack of lighting. “Today we are going to attempt to puncture the barrier between our reality and another using the Eternium we have mustered over the last few quintillion years or so. Success will have one of [X] outcomes.” Telo takes a deep breath before continuing.

 

“Alpha: The reality is breached, and is composed of antimatter. We gain a source of energy for the next few octillion years, and hopefully find a more suitable reality to exploit.”

 

“Beta: The reality is breached, and is composed of baryonic matter, with stellar bodies much alike the ones which may have existed during the Age of Stars.“

 

“Gamma: The reality is breached, and is composed of Strange or Stable matter, and becomes a vector for quantum energy generation or quantum energy removal; quantum cooling.“

 

“And finally, Delta: The reality is breached, and is composed entirely of Eternium or something on the Periodic Table of Eternium-based Elements, the results being utterly unknown.” Telo finishes.

 

f124 takes in the information for a few moments, and then moves over to the seat without another word. The seat appears to be much more than what it was at a glance. There are empty transparent pipes and electrical wires all across the sides of the seat, and the back cushion of the seat has glowing purple circles, which would likely line up with his spine. The top of the seat has what looks like a mask that will assemble itself around f124’s face, although the specific purpose is unknown.

 

f124 speaks up in confusion. “Overseer, I don’t see the reality breaching mechanism. Is this seat used to view the other reality?”

 

Telo explains what f124 does not understand. “This will transport a portion of your consciousness to another reality, where if it defies consciousness as we know it, you should survive with only some major brain injury, instead of catastrophic synapse failure. Of course, we expect that this will turn out well, as it always does.”

 

f124 seems sated by this, and takes his seat. “I am ready, Overseer. Start at will.”

 

Telo gestures one of the other scientists to starting the sequence, and the one beckoned does as nonverbally instructed. Pressing some buttons on a touch screen, the process begins.

 

First, a glowing yellow gas flows from a tank previously unseen in the room through the transparent pipes, feeding into the seat’s machinery. Purple electricity begins to visibly arc through the insulation of the wires, overcome by the phantom forces of said electricity.

 

Soon, f124’s mind begins to flow from him, some of his being flowing behind his spine and into the machine, as the mask begins to lower and assemble around his face to fit like a glove. All f124 sees is darkness for the next moment, although his perception of time is utterly lost and while it was likely no more than a few seconds, he felt as if hours passed inside the dark mask.

 

Then, f124 feels his mind wracked with immeasurable pain, as he feels something pump into him through his back, despite there being no injectors. He feels his individual nerves scream in agony as he silently screams out, but his face unable to move.

 

As abruptly as the pain started, it ceased. f124 opens his eyes, and witnesses his dark vision slowly swirling around him, sparkles of yellow slowly fading in. When he comes back to, he is surrounded by darkness with distant yellow sparkes glowing in the great nothingness, and he is free from his seat, free from his pain.

 

_ Is this the afterlife? It’s too peaceful. _

 

An hour passes within his own little pocket of nothingness, as he feels desperation to escape flow through his veins. He was told that death was simply an end, but this was worse than death.

 

He is alone, and aware of his fate.

 

He claws to try to find a way out, anything to help him salvage himself from this hell, as he swipes a hand in the path of the yellow star. The stars all blink out at the same time, and he is left in pitch black.

 

As he seems to embrace his eternal fate, he feels a mist surround him, as reality seems to cave in to his fate. Once he blinks, what he sees turns from a dark purple mist to a bright and infinite yellow reality, nebula-like expanses of gaseous vapors becoming pillars of infinity.

 

As he extends his right hand to the sight, he witnesses the gasses shift with his motions, and realization hits him like an asteroid; he was the absolute master of this place. His own place to play the god he never could be.

 

What feels like a eon passes within, as he shapes the reality to his every whim. Silent and still statues of nebula of him, to forever stand in his vision. Yes, _ This is the ideal afterlife. _ A eon of being nothing more than an experiment ended by death, his ultimate reward for his hard work.

 

He is powerful, he is wise, and he will guide himself to desire. Even as his vision fades out, he smiles at the eternity that he will have all to himself…

 

He wakes up in the same seat, the dreaded mask still on him. It was just a dream, nothing more. It is certain, just another delusion of his.

 

As the mask unveils his face, the others jump back in shock, something is wrong; something is different. Telo speaks up. “Lambda… Your eyes, your Tendrils… They’re yellow.” This brings f124 into a shock, as he musters his tendrils to his own perception, they are right. Where there should be a translucent purple, there is a powerful and solid yellow, a reminder of his supposed dream.

 

f124 speaks up, his voice booming and limitless. “I guess that it was a success, huh?” and Telo is the only one to respond, with a sharp nod. Telo musters the will to speak again. “Lambda, I think you’ve just done what you were born for; you might have just been the vessel to save all Humanity.”

 

f124 gets up from his seat, feeling his raw power course through him, his might untold, potential unseen, his voice only grows more powerful every instant he continues to exist. “I’m tired. Can I go rest? I feel exhausted from this.” and Telo only responds with a nod, activating the door, allowing the now Eternal to slumber, for Eternos has been born.

  
  


_ THIS WAS THE STORY OF THE BIRTH OF ETERNOS, HIS SECOND. THIS IS YET ONLY HIS UTTER BEGINNING, AND HE WILL PAVE THE PATH TO ABSOLUTION, BUT THAT WILL BE ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER STORY. _

  
  


**AND FATE SHIFTS, FOR THE FIRST TIME.**

 

**Whew. That was fun. 1.5K words of fun. The original story of this chapter as stated above was to cover the war between the Jehact and the Eternal, but I have decided to re-write a significant part of the Eternal, making a being more powerful than anything a living being has ever seen, as I took some (more) inspiration from the Stellaris Workshop mod “Twinks Playable Fallen Empires”, and more specifically the expansion mod “The Eternal Knowledge”**

 

**Oh, by the way… Missile launch detect- Oh, wait. I mean…**

 

**By the way, I updated the Intermission ever so slightly to follow this new origin story, so you should probably re-read some part of it, specifically the introduction to the concept of Voidholders.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHAT IS TO COME:
> 
> Iota's childhood, and his etheric awakening.


	14. Nu: Unix Awakens

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The song before Iota is sung.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay! It's probably not worth the wait honestly, but I want to get this and the next chapter up before I continue the story from Chapter 12 (Kappa) but I assure you that it will (probably) be worth the wait!

**login: The_Zenith_of_Fallen_Empires**

**password: iotaAwakens**

 

**ERROR: TIMEFRAME CODE NOT ACCEPTED.**

 

**login: The_Zenith_of_Fallen_Empires**

**password: f241a6be**

 

**TIMEFRAME CODE ACCEPTED.**

**ACCESS AUTHORIZED.**

 

**open* file.admin.terminal(iotaAwakens)**

 

**DISSONANCE CODE AUTHORIZED**

**WELCOME, ETERNAL RULER explodoboy.**

 

**output(out_authorsNote)**

 

**ERROR: UNSPECIFIED PARAMETERS**

 

**output(out_authorsNote.d)**

 

**ERROR: out_authorsNote DATABLOCK <12> DOES NOT EXIST**

 

**output(out_authorsNote.c)**

 

**DISPLAY FILE note1_birth_of_eternos?**

 

**_n_ **

 

**DISPLAY ABORTED.**

 

**output(out_incursionChapter.d)**

 

**OUTPUT FILE unix_begins?**

 

**y**

 

**DISPLAYING incursionChapter DATABLOCK <12>**

  
  


**_In another time._ **

**_In another place._ **

**_One awakens. For the first time._ **

 

A young Unix Tetract, centuries old but development equivalent to a 15-year old Human gazes out into the starscrapers of Eternis in wonder, a cityscape floating over his housing unit, casting a great shadow upon the residential zone that he occupies.

 

The city, while silent on the outside is bustling within the space-touching buildings, Eternal scientists working every hour, every moment on discovering every small detail of this reality, appearing and vanishing in flashes of yellow energy upon the whims of the ageless people.

 

In other buildings with markings signifying them as hedonist centres, Eternal fill every material need of theirs, drugs freely available, Eternal involved in… Well, you can connect two and two together, and ageless games being played every millisecond of every cycle. Society is truly perfect here, where all whims may be fulfilled from birth.

 

Of course, this story is not centered around the perfected society of Eternity, this song is of the yet-to-be-reborn Iota.

 

Unix was born an average Eternal; Frail, hedonistic, and hyperintelligent. Yet, from his first breaths he was afflicted with a rare condition that would bring him to new heights later in his life.

 

Etheric Exertion, the ability to exert his raw will upon the world around him in how oneself sees fit. Most Eternal are able to do this is some way, but Unix’s ability to bend the world around him to his whims were among the strongest and rarest of methods.

 

Tendrils of darkness, with such precision that they could be the primary tool of surgery but also with so much potential force that it could bend primitive steel at a whim. Etheric Tendrils were the finest exertion of the world around oneself.

 

Not only could Tendrils move with unrivaled precision and power, but they also gave a flawless sixth sense of the world around them, a perfect yet separate sense of touch for the soon to be ageless one. To be able to see the world around oneself with clarity unrivaled would be able to witness the falling of droplets of water, feel a bullet nearing, and for the strongest even feel light move past their own Tendrils.

 

...Yet, all those powers pale in comparison to the potential to undo one’s own death at the moment of failure, without being cast back into the Eternos Planes.

 

Unix was not born with the knowledge of how to use his hidden might due to the extreme rarity of Tendrils. It took decades to understand how to utilize his inner strength, and millenia to begin to truly understand it. Only after billions of years Unix would become a master of his own will.

  
  


**DURING THE YOUTH OF UNIX, HE WITNESSES HIS INNER POWER FIRSTHAND.**

  
  


The day Unix finally began to see what power lied within him was the day he was wounded the first time in his entire life. Eternal society is incredibly safe due to the extreme physical weakness of an Eternal, where bones can break at the slightest of touch, and lives can be cast away in a single moment.

 

The day that Unix truly witnessed his power was in a perpetual night, as Eternis orbits a black hole, the only light coming from a fracture between this reality and the Eternos Planes, where a vortex of pure Eternos matter fills the entirety of the system, resulting in a perpetual twilight all across the artificial planet.

 

Unix, like most of his peers were employed mere decades after their birth due to the incredible intellect that exists even from the first moments of life, while not having the immaturity that is present in what others would see as a normal premature lifeform.

 

Unix’s job was a very hands on job, where he spent half of his cycles operating machinery that produced the purest and most volatile form of Eternium, Catalyzed Eternium.

 

In his youth Unix lacked carefulness and patience, which after this day resulted in many minor injuries throughout his life until maturity. In a vain attempt to speed everything up Unix had not orchestrated the proper sealing of the chambers that separated him from the Eternium he was working with. When he realized his mistake, he attempted to close the shutters of the machinery manually to avoid dangerous radiation from damaging the nearby equipment, thus preventing an alarm from being sounded to cover his own tracks.

 

While he was able to seal himself from the Eternium, he soon found that his left hand was a molten puddle on the ground, the raw energy contained within the Catalyzed Eternium more than enough to liquify his flesh, pain seeping in soon after the discovery. His yell was not overtly loud, but it was more than enough to get a manager’s attention.

 

Simply put, he was to not work with Catalyzed Eternium until adulthood, and would have to get a bionic hand to replace his missing one.  _ The follies of youth _ , one would say.  _ A mere roadblock in his life _ , another would think.

 

The first few hours a phantom pain remained in Unix’s former hand, as he toiled around in the hedonistic centres until he could regain control of his former left hand, enjoying the luxury that he was used to from childhood. A perfect lifestyle for a perfect society.

 

When Unix awoke, he felt strange, his ‘sixth sense’ feeling dulled by clouded mind, him unable to grasp at why he feels so off on this seemingly normal day.

 

The day was indeed normal, that is until he realized that instead of his arm ending at the wrist, a gauntlet of deep, deep purple crystal acting as a perfect simulacrum of his original hand, his stump once a wrist becoming half a hand, thumb just beginning to appear once more.

 

Unix fell unconscious afterwards, the weight of the situation combined with the pure exertion of his mind unable to support his developing mind.

 

Unix came to, eventually. It must not have been very long since he lost his consciousness, for his hand has yet to continue to heal. Unix, for the first time activates the lighting of his room with nothing else than his mind, soon beckoning forth a decadent drink to awaken himself. Yesterday could be considered normal in comparison to this day. That is for sure.

 

Unix got up from his bed-half machinery, half will ensuring he remained steady. He walked to his window to gaze out into the nearly starless sky once more, weak green lights of distant artificial lights and even more distant galaxies dotting the sky lightly, the storms of Eternos of the system protecting Eternis from the night.

 

The last few cycles were many firsts. The first time Unix was wounded, the first time Unix had witnessed his dormant power, and the first time he involuntarily lost consciousness in his entire existence.

 

Gazing into the perpetual twilight, Unix mentally readies himself for the cycle ahead, and a rather interesting conversation with the medical professional to follow. Raising his crystalline hand up,  _ he shifts fate to his will _ .

  
  


**AND FATE SHIFTS, FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THIS UNIVERSE.**

  
  


**Whew, somehow found the will to get this chapter posted today. Yes, I am a bit late, but better late than never. Until fate shifts again…**

 

**THE DEMONS WATCH FROM THE EDGE.**

**(no, not really. this doesn’t have anything to do with plot, i just thought it looked cool. don't look into it, or you might be disappointed come next chapter.)**

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHAT IS TO COME:
> 
> The Jehact are expanded, much alike the Enigmatic Observatory chapters of before, but different...


	15. Xi: Jehact Expanded

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Jehact are expanded upon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 15's coming in the next 7 days, and then I'm taking a break for a while.

**Sorry for the extended delay. I’ve simply been experiencing quite a bit of burnout, and I have decided to take a break after I post Chapter 15, which is coming for sure in the next 7 days.**

 

**I will not abandon this story, so don’t get worried about that. I will ensure the story is ended in some way if I decide that I want to stop writing this.**

 

**I will hopefully gain the inspiration required to continue this.**

 

**Worst comes to worst, I begin wrapping up the series after Chapter 15. That doesn’t necessarily mean that it ends at 15, just that I will begin prepping an ending. No promises either way, though.**

 

**But today we read in a previous format…**

~~**Froback Friday! Woohoo!** ~~

**Well damn. I intended for this to be released on Friday.**

**So... Moback Monday. Woohoo?**

 

**Screw it! the nightmare once more!**

  
  


**LONG AGO, BEFORE THE FALL OF THE ETERNAL.**

**A MAN GAZES OUT INTO THE ABYSS.**

**HE IS THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER.**

**HE IS THE PROTECTOR OF ALL.**

**RISE, ETERNAL, MY SCION.**

  
  


Deep in the abyss, a planet bustling with activity lies along in the cosmic shore. Its surface scarred by terraforming and a planetbound society.

 

A familiar starcraft flies slowly towards a grand research station, listening in on the society below. The Nomad of the past venturing through the darkness, docking with the station without event.

 

The interior of the station is well lit, Eternal walking across the station, working hard at all hours, the pupils of most of the Eternal being that of a deep purple, glowing in the bright light. Other Eternal are utterly covered by cybernetic enhancements, said Eternal going to areas that require machines to be operated. The last and least group of Eternal carry heavy objects with their four arms and well-built figures, able to handle loads greater than most other lifeforms.

 

All activity slows down for a moment in the presence of the entering Eternal. His irises glowing yellow, his full-body, light and sleek armor glowing yellow in some pieces of the suit, traveling through tubes hidden inside the armor. The other Eternal gaze upon this one as if he were a god among ants. Once the shock from the unexpected visit of the Eternal has subsided, activity continues as normal. The march begins.

 

His march to the specific room is unimpeded. Those in his path move out, those unable to simply moved around by the Eternal. The behemoth of a station extends the walk from mere minutes to nearly half an hour, but there is no difference to an Eternal.

 

The destination, a closed off room with a terminal inside. The terminal automatically logging in at the presence of the great man, etheric tendrils of a opaque yellow acting as his hands bringing up a specific file as if he had done it countless times before. Who is there to kid? An Eternal has done everything countless times.

 

The file takes a few moments to open, and the secrets of the world below lie bare to the one.

 

_ ENIGMA STATION: “FALL OF ASCENSION” f96 _

_ KAOLD AI UPLINK 17.276r9 _

_ WELCOME, ETERNOS. _

_ ALL PRIVILEGES GRANTED. _

_ ACCESS LEVEL 0 GRANTED. _

_ THIS ENTRY WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY DELETED AFTER SESSION EXPIRES. _

 

The man, now known as Eternos does not move a nanometer as he summons the file.

 

_ run(protocol(access_0(file_launcher))) _

 

**INPUT FILENAME:** _ jehact.databank.full _

**ACCESS LEVEL 3 REQUIRED. (Current access: 0)**

**ACCESS GRANTED.**

 

**KEY:**

Ascension Cycle: _ A series of events that lead to the founding of an Eternal Empire. _

 

Eternium Adaption:  _ A series of events on the evolutionary level that are vital for the foundation of an Eternal Empire, especially one that is capable of expanding to other realities. _

 

Scionship treaty: _ A diplomatic agreement between two empires in which one empire acts as the Overlord of the recipient, the overlord providing technological, societal, and military assistance for the subject state’s ceasing of all expansion of territory and surrendering of all military assets, also giving the overlord power full control over the subject state’s government in most cases. _

 

Eternium Synthesis: _ Often the first method of Eternium Acquisition for a society without direct or indirect communication with an already pre-established Eternal Empire, Eternium Synthesis is the least efficient method of creating non-catalyzed Eternium, the most common byproduct of said process being Eternium Chloride, the most stable but least useful type of Eternium. _

 

_ DNAi Evolution: Often the first sign of a growing Eternal Empire’s mastery over Eternium, DNAi Evolution is the entire changing of a species genome to DNAi, which allows for clinical immortality to be fully integrated into a species without risk of negative mutation. _

 

**SPECIES DESCRIPTION:**

_ The Jehact are a species who were discovered during the second Ascension Cycle of their empire, having recently entered Eternium Adaption species wide. There is minimal information of their state before their first Ascension Cycle. _

 

_ Members of the Jehact are generally well-built for an Eternium-enhanced organism, and are above-average in intelligence. (Survey does not include any individuals of the Eternal Empire, due to extreme intelligence relative to high-intelligence lifeforms.) but had below-average lifespans for an Eternium-based organism until said disease was genetically eliminated by Eternal Empire intervention. _

 

_ The Jehact Scionship, previously known as the Jehact Ascendancy declared war with a Scion Colony upon the mutual discovery, being in line with the Jehact Scionship’s warrior behavior. The Scion Colony was almost eliminated, but was salvaged when Eternos attained form in this reality to deal with the conflict, leading a force of Zenith inter-reality carriers to contain the growing threat. _

 

_ The current state of the Jehact Scionship is a Scionship as standard agreement, with the exception that the Jehact Scionship may only occupy one star system of their choosing, and be granted a Ecumenopolis to occupy. _

 

**ETERNIUM ASCENSION:**

_ While the exact date of Ascension is unknown, it is estimated that the first Cycle occurred .92 Billion cycles ago, starting when a scientific breakthrough discovered Eternium, and millenia after Eternium Synthesis was discovered. .04 Billion cycles ago, DNAi Evolution was discovered, and was still being implemented into society when the mutual discovery between the Eternal Empire and the Jehact Scionship occurred. _

 

**CONTAINMENT METHOD:**

_ While extremely unlikely due to the behavior of the Jehact, in the event the Jehact Scionship incite a rebellion against the Eternal Empire without intent to assault the Eternos Planes, one of X strategies should be attempted. _

 

Strategy Alpha: Scionship Revision

_ The Scionship Agreement is to be diplomatically re-suggested, with the allowance of the Jehact to expand freely across the entirety of the galaxy with the promise that they will not expand out of it until the agreement is to be reviewed once again. Any Eternal populations will be systematically relocated to avoid Jehact expansion issues. _

 

Strategy Beta: Scion Partnership

_ In the event the Jehact are stronger than expected, a Scionship revision is declined, and it is unlikely a significant military force can be mustered against the Jehact before they can conquer Eternal systems, a opportunity of partnership between Scion and Eternal can be suggested, where the Jehact are allowed to expand into any claimed galaxy that is not currently occupied by Eternal or designated as preserve galaxies. _

 

Strategy Gamma: Third Wave

_ If the Jehact refuse any attempts at peace, the galaxy is to be evacuated as swiftly as possible, including relocation to the Eternos Planes and a military force sufficient enough to eliminate the Jehact opposition is to be deployed as soon as the current stagnancy cycle allows, with continual attempts at establishing a Scion Partnership as soon as possible. _

 

**ELIMINATION METHODS:**

_ In the event that the Jehact discover a method of traveling to the Eternis Sanctum of the Eternos Planes, and also show any signs of attempting an invasion, a slash-and-burn strategy is to immediately be put in place, where all available military assets of the Eternal Empire are to be mustered and launch an immediate assault on Jehact worlds, all of said empire’s worlds being immediately annihilated in the most efficient manner possible. Attempts to rescue any Jehact citizens from the impending genocide is to be enacted before destruction of planets. _

 

**PHYSICAL FEATURES:**

Scientific Name (Eternal):  _ Eternos Jenoct Betax _

Scientific Name (Jehact):  _ Unvix Tox _

Diet:  _ Omnivorous (Prefer herbivore lifestyle) _

Locomotion:  _ Bipedal _

Height: _ Above Average _

Muscle Density:  _ High Density _

Muscle Layout:  _ Lower-body strength focused _

Intelligence:  _ Average _

Adaptability:  _ Average _

Organ Redundancy:  _ Low _

 

**ETERNAL PHYSICAL FEATURES (For comparison):**

Scientific Name (Eternal):  _ Eternos Sapiens _

Diet:  _ Omnivorous _

Locomotion:  _ Bipedal _

Height:  _ High above Average Height _

Muscle Density:  _ Extremely Low _

Muscle Layout:  _ Balanced _

Intelligence:  _ Above Measure _

Adaptability:  _ None (Critically low with standard cybernetic enhancements.) _

Organ Redundancy:  _ None (Extreme with standard cybernetic enhancements.) _

 

**ADDITIONAL NOTES:**

_ The Jehact appear to have previously been on the path of a physical feature level much alike an Eternal, which increases their potential threat level to the local universe. While an Eternal Empire much alike the Eternal would not be a threat due to mutual understanding of absolute immortality, a fledgeling civilization like the Jehact would likely be catastrophically (To themselves) aggressive due to the lack of wisdom that comes with an aged Eternal Empire. _

 

close

 

**DETACHING PROCESS…**

 

**PROCESS DETACHED.**

 

System.log_off

 

**SYSTEM LOG FILE REMOVED.**

**CLEARING CACHE.**

 

The terminal de-activates, and then turns back on seconds later. His curiosity sated (once more), Eternos marches back to the Nomad of the past. Nodding to Kaold Abyss soon after he re-enters, the starship detaches from the station and flies off into the darkness, where a rift between this reality and the Eternos Planes is breached, the rulers of different realities going to the domain of the true ruler.

  
  


**And the curtain falls.**

  
  


**Well, that was fun to make once I finally got to the good part.**

 

**Chapter 15’s probably coming out in the next 7 days as the top note specifies, continuing the plot from Chapter 11.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHAT IS TO COME:
> 
> Iota is given a new perspective in the light of a Zenith, the cloud of rage fading.


	16. THE FINALE: Rage before the calm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is a calm before the storm.  
> There is a storm before the calm.  
> The calm is here.  
> We may now cease.  
> Rise, Finale.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the end.  
> This is the beginning.  
> 4.5k words, all to end this in one go.  
> Shall we?

**Hello.**

 

**I am deeply sorry for the extreme delay, I’ve just not had the motivation to write this story any further, and I have decided to end this story this chapter, and move on to make more stories.**

 

**For my sins, I am granting you all a 4.5K word chapter, which wraps up the story in one go. It’s not perfect, but I have to end this somehow.**

 

**My plans are to make a new story sometime soon that features variants of the Eternity AU to create many scenarios, many may be one shots, others may be their own little stories.**

 

**I hope that you forgive me for my inability to hold to my promises, but I cannot do something that I have no creative energy for, and I simply refuse to abandon this story without making an ending for it.**

 

**It all ends here. But it also all begins here.**

 

**That is all.**

  


**Into the Abyss.**

  


Time slowed down as Iota’s rage was focused upon the gemstones of the matriarchs, a level of hateful will that this reality has yet to witness before. Raw hatred burning in the core of the Eternal pushing him to ending the existences of the primitive starborn in front of him, the deed to be done.

 

Yet, the final blow did not come, for tendrils meet tendrils, and Iota is cast back in a gust of wind, landing expertly on his feet as he gazes upon the new threat. His fury pressed against his skin much akin to high pressure gas trying to rupture a balloon when he bares witness to the one who dare defy fate.

 

The creature was an avian bipedal, whose feathers end in a slight tinge of yellow, a Penthulan with an interesting color scheme, the same one who bore witness to the might of the fallen Zenith of old. The Zenith Penthulan, calm and ready for what is to come.

 

Iota only utters a few words, but his echoing voice under the power of the Zenith suit gives unimaginable meaning with every syllable, every letter, and every breath. “What are you doing? I called upon you to help me end these primitives! Not rescue them!” Iota’s facial expression turning to that of rage once more, Tendrils dangerously shifting around, kicking up sand under his fury.

 

The Zenith Penthulan’s voice echoed much akin to Iota, but without any special ability enhancing suit to boost her ability. “This is not their time, Iota. I will not permit your endings to come. The child can salvage this, without allowing any singing.”

 

Iota only seemed to become increasingly enraged by the Penthulan, his voice picking up in volume as his tendrils arm themselves ready to kill. “The ramblings of the pre-mature Starborn will not get to them! You are only in my way!” And thus, Iota’s tendrils launched forwards as his rage filled the minds of nearby Gem and organic alike, freezing them in place as they are forced to witness the battle of pure will.

 

Rage met Calm, as a shockwave pushed those too close to the scene of the battle, yet Iota remaining stationary, the Zenith Penthulan pushed back mere feet, the Zenith uttering a “You are clouded by your fury on behalf of your kin. You limit yourself, and that means defeat.” Although Iota does not seem to take the statement seriously, as he casts his will forwards in the form of another shockwave.

 

The Zenith was ready for this, though, and cast her own will forwards, both wills meeting and clashing against each other, the perfected orchestration of will on the Zenith’s part resulting in nothing more than sand blowing around the Zenith, while Iota is cast back by the concentrated will, knocking a immobile Garnet onto her back, as Iota pushes himself back up with his tendrils and darts forward too fast for most to see…

 

...But of course, the Zenith is unlike all others, as she is able to move out of the path of the unstoppable force, no object immovable at this very instant, Iota soon after slowing himself to a halt after missing his mark. While his strength is immeasurable, his fury prevents him from seeing as he wants.

 

The Zenith takes note that Iota’s right eye is nearly closed, and has an obvious sign of injury. Perhaps she could tip the battle even more in her favor, and show who is the true underdog here.

 

The Zenith casts her will upon the sand beneath, throwing a shotgun of glass shards in the direction of Iota’s face, allowing blood to rain upon the sand.

 

Iota’s fury travels to his voice as he shouts “My eyes! You cannot comprehend the millenia it takes for eyes to regenerate!” and he casts another wave of fury ahead, the Zenith leaping out of its path, hitting a poor Pearl, unable to move or speak like everyone else under Iota’s influence. Regardless, the poor Gem let out a surprised yelp as the amalgamation of fury and hatred overwhelms her senses, soon after leaving a gemstone on the sand.

 

The overwhelming emotion of Iota and the Zenith Penthulan still keeps all in their place, even Blue Diamond being unable to overcome the rage deep within Iota’s veins, the only thing those witnessing the battle can do is think, for no other action is possible. Even the eyes of the involuntary witnesses are affixed, silent beholders of the battle raging amongst them.

 

In the mind of the Zenith, she beholds toiling worlds of fate enter and exit her mind, all reliant upon the victor. If Iota is to be victorious, he will surely bring genocide to the leader of the Geoloid. Yet, if the child is able to get to the two triarchs, then the Geoloid could be reduced as a threat to the Eternal. It may be a sin to fight against the will of a God, but too many would succumb if Iota were to end the existences of these matriarchs.

 

Bursts of fury impact with echoes of a better future, sand kicked up in the wake of the Eternal and Zenith. Iota musters the culmination of countless years of hatred in his heart, and casts it forward in the form of a burst of red energy, the cataclysmic force throwing the Zenith back dozens of meters.

 

Iota gazes forward, readying himself for the Zenith’s next attack. While his eyes do not work, his Tendrils are more than enough to compensate, for nothing can hide from a man who has mastered the world around him.

 

Push. Pull. Push. Pull. Those are the internal motions of the potential within the Eternal. Muster his raw will, and cast it out of him. Call back whatever remains, and ensure the cycle begins anew. Cycle the might within like his heart pumping blood through his physical body, and give whoever stands in his path no opportunity to recover.

 

The Zenith’s strategy is that of precision, mustering up her will and then blasting it away like a sniper bullet. While her might has yet to be mastered, and her abilities weaker, her calm mind is able to avoid the rage from settling into her mind. Her mind is clear, and her mind is strong.

 

Expand.

Contact.

 

Focus.

Exert.

 

Two sides of a die, opposites of each other. Immeasurable skill clouded by rage clasing with youthful ignorance and calm. If the sides were evened, Iota would surely be victorious, yet rage is like a great fog, it blinds the future, only allowing the now and the near future to bear witness.

 

Calm allows clarity, to detach one’s mind from reality is to allow oneself to behold what is to come, and what is to go. While the now is vague, the far future is clear…

  


**AND PERSPECTIVE SHIFTS.**

**BLINDED EYE OF THE FINALE, IOTA.**

  


The childish Zenith is far too young. She is ignorant of the _true_ horrors of all reality, and she will perish if she does not realize the error of her ways. She stands between the forces of Conscious and not, an Eternal will never have to bear witness to death, but the vile Geoloid have forced oh so many to experience true death; all their society and memories forgotten and buried underneath the sands of time.

 

_No. I will not give in to a primitive, childish,_ **_Starborn CHILD._ ** _I will nullify the existence of those who stand in the path of the Eternal. If I must reclaim the Zenith Fragments, then I shalt do as the Abyss beckons._

 

I reflexively cast another wave of inner torment to the child, my Etherium within a mere extension of myself. Letting off just enough pressure to avoid straining myself.

 

Then, the primitive speaks. “You are blinded by your hatred, you cannot gaze into the future, Iota.”

 

My fury builds, _I must end this here and now._ I think, _Yes. Show her how I shape my own future._

 

I call upon the memories within me, and feel the surge course through my nerves, through my blood, and into my arms.  I let off such a great feat of strength that it leaves the sand a fine clear glass, yet in the dust that is kicked up is not anything. _The child dodged. Clever, but not enough._

 

A single tendril is shifted ever so slightly, as I call upon another wave to be cast out of myself, leaving more glass in my wake. Yet, I feel nothing there.

 

For an instant, I consider casting my will all around me, but then I realize that it would invariable result in the fatality of the Human child, and it would not be definite that I would land a silencing blow. No, I must continue striking. Predict, gaze into the future.

 

_The future of Man rests upon my timeless shoulders._

  


**PERSPECTIVE SHIFTS.**

**THE EYE OF THE AEGIS, YOUTHFUL ZENITH.**

  


I barely dodge the waves of fury emitted from him, but his eyes are closed to potential realities, the pun perhaps intended. _No, I cannot distract myself with childish jokes._

 

I needn’t listen to his words. He will try to distract me, draw me from my goal. Pull me out of my sense of security, and strike me down. It is a cosmic tragedy that his rage on behalf of his kin blind him to the consequences of his actions. He wants to take the easy way out, use all of his will to end the lives of the Geoloid, even those who do not need to be ended.

 

Perhaps, if I survive this I could convince him to allow the child to enact his plans, but survival may not be possible. If nothing more, I must grant the Geoloid Monarchs the opportunity to flee, even if it means the death of me.

 

His bursts become closer and closer, as my movements become more predictable than the previous one.

 

My next exertion surprises me, for I cast myself through his area of influence, grabbing him with my own Tendrils and lifting him into the air. He gasps in surprise for a moment, and I realize that I finally have a real opportunity to convince him.

 

“Iota, your genocide will bring nothing to the Eternal, it will only bring death and destruction to innocent Geoloid! Your path absols not one sapient!”

 

Yet he does not listen. “You understand **nothing** , Child! The Songs they bring upon others are countless in number, and you are the bastion of Existence’s Nullification!” and thus, my grip on the Eternal is shattered in an instant, as I am thrown back by a sudden wave of hatred, my senses overwhelmed by fury directed not at them, but at _me._

 

The pain is one that is difficult to imagine, but I now understand what the Geoloid and the Human are experiencing.

  


**INTO THE RABBIT HOLE.**

**PERSPECTIVE SHIFTS, THROUGH STEVEN’S GAZE.**

  


Falsehood must not persist. Objectivity is the only way for a truly great people. If knowledge dictates that the way forward is ours, we will pursue it at all costs, even if others may not witness eternity.

 

We were once surrounded by the Gods of ancient dictations, and we remember that chance is great in such a big universe. It is bound for gods to become ours out of pure chance.

 

When one is threatened, they resist with violence. A powerful people must maintain the ability to push forward at all costs. There is no defeat. There is only the way forward.

 

_If I let these_ **_starborn_ ** _finish their mission, then many Eternal shall surely be cast into the abyss. We will not allow torment to come to our people, and fate shifted to our side permamentaly when Eternos was born._

 

_No matter what they say, no matter what they do, we will remain an empire of sound._

 

_Sound means sturdy. Unshifting, and difficult to break down. A sound victory is not only strong, but is full of voice around and within. And when the way of Eternal is of songs, of sound…_

 

_...There will be but one truth. And that truth is Eternity._

  


**EMPATHY CANNOT SAVE ALL, NOT WHEN ONE REFUSES TO LOOK OUTSIDE HIS OWN BUBBLE.**

**PERSPECTIVE SHIFTS.**

**A THIRD PERSON, OUTSIDE OF REALITY GAZES.**

  


Iota, blinded by his rage casts all of his will forwards, slowly exhausting his strength for the cause of eliminating the Penthulan in his path. Yet, he has yet to realize that the battle has finally begin to shift out of his favor. Every burst above his capacity slows his Tendrils down, as his strikes stagnate in precision and accuracy. He gets better at nearing his mark, but his Tendrils react too late.

 

While it appears his actions are growing desperate, it is simply out of impatience and fury, growing at an exponential rate as the battle drags on.

 

With every exertion, Iota’s strength drains. Every expansion of will leads to a even greater contraction, like a heart growing weaker with every beat.

 

Minute after minute, Iota loses his grip upon his power.

 

Adrenaline pumps through the Zenith, while his body’s atrophy over the last eternities presents itself more and more.

 

Iota grows increasingly aware of his situation, an readies himself for a final assault of divineless judgement, all his might coursing through his veins at an instant, and letting off a final wave of internal torment.

 

And with that, the fight is over.

 

Iota, without will to enforce upon the victims around him collapses upon his knees. His gaze of fury calms upon his mistake, a great mistake but the Eternal can recover no matter what happens.

 

The Zenith slowly lowers her guard, approaching Iota slowly. The Zenith then speaks. “Iota, you must remain calm to make a judgement, anger will only drive your kin down.”

 

Iota stands, gazing at the now freed Yellow Diamond, who is apparently still scared of what may still remain within Iota, and then back to the Zenith. “It appears that my anger was enough to make myself defeatable to a young Zenith, even one with a fragment of the Zenith’s true potential.” Iota’s somewhat defeated face remains, as he gazes at Steven. “Child, make your case. Even if I have lost strength, Our Dark Star can protect you from the Triarchs.”

 

Even with the Eternal in Zenith’s suit weakened, the Diamonds, more specifically Yellow Diamond remains extremely wary, very few gems have ever faced the Eternal and survived in the battlefield. Even a weakened Eternal with the ability to fight could still be a threat.

 

Blue Diamond’s reason for doing nothing was witnessing what Iota could do without him even placing his attention on them, even this weak state could perhaps paralyze her again. Blue Diamond stared angrily at Steven, but remained silent.

  


**The world fades out, as the child begins his speech. The world dulls, and there is now only one. One voice, one heartbeat, one mind.**

 

**Within the mind of Iota.**

  


_Anger distorted my mind._

 

_I thought I was meant to be our Dark Star._

 

_Anger pushed me down._

 

_I wasn’t born to hold us together._

 

_But now I am given_

 

_The chance of Haven._

 

_Haven, oh so distant from me for so long. Like meeting a old friend after eons since last meet._

 

_Regret is all that is worth focusing on._

 

_Even if one of the Triarchs attempt to bring me to this world’s death, I will simply bide my time in the depths of Eternis. None shall strike me down, not absolutely._

 

_How did this start? Why did this start?_

 

It was back when I was a guideless Nomad. When I had begun my search.

 

The black of the Nomad resembled home.

 

The red resembled the eternal embers of Man.

 

Had it been mere days, or had it been millenia?

 

It mattered not to me. Time often loses its effect when a Eternal becomes ageless. Seconds indistinguishable from eons, Entropy the only sign of time to us all.

 

For the longest time I existed not in the files, I was nothing more than a distant thought to a ageless man. The Terminals of older times knowing the one before me, but not the one of now.

 

Perhaps minutes passed. Perhaps millions. Or was it just a few centuries? Tracking time is not necessary anymore. I crossed to close into Geoloid territory, I had to do this safe, I do not exist to them yet.

 

I knew beforehand the station would not grant me information as it too was too old, but the Iota of old was gone, and the Iota of now has yet to undergo genesis.

 

It was the first time I orchestrated the uplifting of a species. Long later I went to uplift the Omega with the same credentials of the Voidholder. Oh, the days of silence.

 

Eventually I went to the thriving world of Icor. It was a unpleasant surprise at first to witness a fanatically religious people operating Eternal knowledge, but I had learned to tolerate it.

 

It turns out the Penthulan were somehow naturals at Eternal technology. During that time he noted that Ascension for the Penthulan may have be a favorable option once this universe begins to die out.

 

Did he really need the Penthulan for the Culmination? No, but the technology that could be repurposed as weapons would be helpful in the event of Geoloid contact.

 

Oh, shortly after the Geoloid had learned that a Eternal was around. That was a wonderful time, the Geoloid were yet to witness the **true** might of the Eternal.

 

The week before he made his way to Sol III, he brought salvation to the GETH in the form of a silent deployment, remembering the many, many warnings of the chaos that is to come by giving a sentient AI full access to a machine of such might.

 

When the Penthulan _demanded_ that Iota bring soldiers with him, he really had no interest. But they would not relent unless he was escorted by a 4 soldier crew, especially in active Geoloid space. Frankly, he would have just destroyed the entire planet if the AI was destroyed, but he got there at such a time that wasting his time extermination Geoloid was simply not an option.

 

The water came to a boil when he sensed the mind of what was apparently supposed to be a dead Geoloid Monarch, and he made a deployment immediately to the planet ‘she’ was supposed to be.

 

There I witnessed a new truth, that the ruler was truly dead, and left a remnant of her in the form of an Organic Starborn.

 

He socialized, something he had not done in eons. He learned, for the first time in an eternity, and he felt anger, something he only felt a few times in his eternal existence.

 

And now, I am left on my knees after fighting without my mind, my feeble form vulnerable to destruction. Perhaps if the Zenith did not hold loyalty to me, I could be reshaping in the depths of the Eternis Sanctum.

 

I open my mind to the world, ready for what is to come. I is not the captain, I a mere guide. What comes, comes. The future is sometimes in Eternium.

 

The Blue Monarch gazes at the child in disbelief, and the Yellow one too. Almost convinced to his case, but just out of reach.

 

I pick my words carefully, just like long before. Then, comes my speech. “The child has no reason to lie to you two, he has a sense of altruism coming from him, one that I seldom see in any but Eternal. Perhaps you too should open your minds to him. If his aim is deceit, it crosses above even a mind of Eternity.”

 

They do not take it well, they try to make arguments in their minds, but in the end they cannot reach a concrete conclusion. We are surely victorious, are we not?

 

The first thing I hear since my internal collapse is the voice of the Yellow monarch. “But how is this possible? She has to be lying, she has to be!”

 

A spark of anger returns, but is still masked by apathy. “Perhaps you need to cease this needless violence. I am done with this childish fighting. I will take a part of it no more.” I state. Before anyone may something more, I reinforce my statement with “And you are not taking a part of this either. I will drag you back to your world of genesis if I am forced to.”

 

Time goes on as they are drawn closer and closer to the truth. It is almost within the reach of my Tendrils. Almost.

 

I was not born to be diplomatic. I was born to be one of the many. A hedonist of hedonists. When I needed to get a point across, I presented my mind to my peers, in a case of, what the Starborn call “Show and not tell.” in which-

 

Wait. That is it. That is the solution to this. I reach a final conclusion within. I speak suddenly, interrupting whoever was trying to speak. “I have come to realization how to finally end this, and unveil the absolute truth.” I beckon the child over. “Starborn, your mind is similar the one who came before you. I felt it before I came, and they will come to realize that too.” and thus, the child walked over to me, still a bit cautious and hesitant to speak.

 

My gaze is affixed on the Yellow one now. “Starborn. You remember the presence of your fallen ally, am I correct?” She only nods. My gaze now to the Blue. “And you?” She nods too. “Thus, you will learn the truth. Child, I am simply going to reflect your mind upon theirs. You will not get used to it in time, but you will get your point across. Got it?” The child states “Yes!” in a cheery voice.

 

I muster the little strength within me, and connect the two of our minds. His mind is overshadowed by mine, as I amplify his thoughts to an acceptable point. I then shift my hand in the direction of the Geoloid Matriarchs, their minds succumbing to the truth of the child’s brain. Their eyes widen, as the blue one begins to tear up suddenly.

 

Slightly arrogant, my facial expression shifts slightly as I state “Is this proof sufficient?” and the two do not respond to me, the blue one in shattered disbelief. “It’s you.” and thus, I move to his side. “Apparently it is.”

 

While the Yellow matriarch barely moves, the Blue matriarch nearly leaps at the child, but is able to keep herself from doing so in my presence. I then speak to said child. “It appears that you got your point across. Well done.” and he beams at me. Such infectious positivity of his. Sad to know that he was born among primitives, and not among Eternal. He could have been a great contribution to Eternal society.

 

I gaze upon the Yellow one. She flinches. “Consider yourself blessed by the Abyss bloodline for this child and Zenith’s mercy to you.” She sighs. She had best be relieved. I may be calmed, but my blood still runs near boiling at the thought of these genocidal creatures remaining among the cosmos. I come to realization that they want to hold their lost loved one, and thus I relent, and speak to the Monarchs. “I have no reason to cease your attempts at speaking with your peer. I will leave you be.” I walk away.

 

The Blue One nearly leaps at the child, immediately showing immense affection towards him. While the Blue monarch showers the child in affection and attention, the Yellow monarch tearfully berates him for not speaking up at ‘The Trial’. Hold up an abyssal nanosecond, TRIAL?

 

The freezing up of them catches me by surprise. I then realize that I thought out loud. Huh.

 

I guess I must finish what I started. “Hold on, the child was put on trial? How in thy entropic abyss did you transport him to your homeworld, much less him returning to Sol 3?” The Yellow monarch audibly gulps, a wary expression fixed upon me until I soften my gaze. “I am merely confused, my apologies Starborn.”

 

The Yellow monarch speaks up. “An Aquamarine captured her, and brought her to Homeworld. Pink was put on trial.”, the monarch cringing at what is probably the possibility of the destruction of the form of the child. I hold back the question of why they keep calling him Pink, I’ll have to reserve that for later…

 

While they continue speaking to the organic child, I pace around, giving passing glances to the Zenith that gave me a moment of clarity. The voices of the others are dulled to me, now that I am within my own mind once more. I think I hear something of one of the Monarchs being happy that the child was on this planet, while the other perhaps soon after displays annoyance at the (pathetic) aura of the other. Who was the one with the emotional aura? My mind glow blinds me to the weak influence.

 

I think I feel the Pearl regain shape, but I am too lost within the catacombs of my mind to be certain. I could extend my influence, but sometimes I need to keep myself in one place. Was a sudden feeling of emotion shock? Anger? Again, I am too unfocused to process it. I just let the feeling flow away from me. Lost in the aether.

 

I feel the glow of the Zenith’s mind intrude upon mine. This time, I do not push it out. Her ethereal voice speaks to me, speaking without her body. “Iota, if the Geoloid threat has been eliminated, should we return to the Eternal space to awaken your kin?” I respond with “Eternos dictates when we begin expansion once again. Our Keeper does not want to risk any more Eternal forms. I am stuck out here until either my form is destroyed, or I am recalled.”

 

The Zenith’s mind emits confusion, she knows little of our Eternal Keeper. His ruler status and name may be all she knows, but she should show less confusion. She is ascended after all.

 

I feel a geoloid warp pad warm up, and I rush into the child’s house before the warp away. The pad ceases operating as I near it. They gaze at me, waiting for what I have to say. I decide to hold back their anticipation no longer. “I have done all I need here. You are looking for your fallen one’s ship, yes? It is in a desert which the child has visited before. I must leave, now. I wish you luck at whatever you seek, and consider the Geoloid war of Punishment postponed indefinitely.” I walk away, the feeling of the approval of the Zenith pushing me forwards.

 

A drop ship lands soon after I leave the house, and I enter it, ready to leave this behind, and complete my protocols.

 

I have one last thing to do, before I can return to my kin.

 

**Just one more thing.**

  


**AND THE CURTAIN FALLS.**

**THY END, ABSOLUTION TO THIS STORY BROUGHT.**

 

**Making this story was fun, and I quite enjoyed finishing this up.**

 

**I** **_did_ ** **plan on bringing this to Homeworld, but I reached a dead end, so I ended this a bit prematurely, unfortunately.**

 

**Don’t worry, this probably isn’t the end of my stories, and to the same extent probably not the end of the Eternity AU. Chances are next time we meet, it’ll be in a bunch of Eternity AU oneshots.**

 

**Hell, one day I might even rewrite this story, if I find a way to make a much more polished version.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHAT IS TO COME:
> 
> A new world. Or an old one? What does FATE have for us? Only time will tell...


	17. PI: The Afterword

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All good things come to an end, but for many this is only the beginning.
> 
> The epilogue of this story, the AFTERWORD!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have returned for one last chapter of INCURSION!
> 
> I present to you… The Afterword!
> 
> What IS the Afterword? This chapter will wrap up the species of Incursion, showing where they have reached by the end of Incursion, along with timestamps for how long it has been since the Gems invaded their worlds. An Epilogue, effectively.
> 
> Oh, and I updated Chapter 10 and 11 (11 and 12 taking note of the Intermission) to improve upon it, and bring the Culmination to its original glory of planet-ending terror.
> 
> The Geoloid menace may have been dealt with, but the story has not ended. There is one last thing to do.
> 
> We gaze unto the stars, witnessing how far the Peoples have come, for one last time.
> 
> One last time, before we venture into the nothingness between our hearts and minds.
> 
> Let us gaze upon these worlds, revolving around our Dark Star.
> 
> Rise, my Scion.

 

**20,879 CYCLES AGO, A UNITED MIND EMERGED FROM ITS HIVE, AWOKEN BY THE INCURSION OF THOSE BUILT FROM LIGHT. THE MACHINE OF LONG AGO ROSE ONLY MERE MILLENIA AGO, GIVING US ENDLESS INSIGHT INTO THE ETERNAL KNOWLEDGE OF THE KEEPER.**

 

A sprawling city spans across the continent, an early Industrial Age setting the surface of the planet alight when night arrives, drones of the Omega Consciousness working tirelessly until it is their time to slumber. In the very center of the city lies a great mound of flesh, carefully maintained by drones in a comfortable temperature, for the drones protect the mind that controls them, the mind protecting itself from death, growing bigger every day as its regenerative abilities outpaces the local environment’s hostility.

 

In another continent, the ARCHIC of old sits still in another centre of industry, wires plugging into it to allow the unlimited knowledge of the machine to slowly feed into primitive mechanical computers, this transfer of knowledge sure to become exponentially faster once true computers are invented. Drones of the Omega Hivemind work tirelessly to be enlightened by the endless knowledge within the walking skyscraper. In the center of the city, right next to the ARCHIC a great pillar of psionic energy acts as a relay for the Omega.

 

Omega, the immutable and eternal core of the Hive has for millennia gazed upon the night sky in wonder, though countless eyes, through countless voices. Billions of hands working in unison, all vessels not of their own being or mind, but just biological tools of the Hive. A being that transcends understanding of what a Hive Mind should be.

 

In centuries, Omega predicts, the stars will be theirs. Omega will march onto the cosmic sea, and swim in an ocean of Eternal wonder, of Eternal beauty.

 

_ The stars are mine. _ Omega declares.  _ Soon, the march into the Abyss begins. _

 

As the world fades out of view, the cities glow dimly in the night, and the world of  _ Via Epoch _ vanishes from sight…

  
  


**Ten Thousand Cycles ago, our worldview changed. The holy Prismatic descended upon our world, but instead of enlightening us with endless knowledge, they sought to end our hold. Aegis did not fall, and soon we became even more united than ever before.**

 

The bustling world of Aegis glows bright in the night, sometimes primitive but massive satellites passing into view, relaying information for the pursuit of the Aegis kind to view.

 

The cities of the Aegis are composed of skyscrapers, their variants of skyscraper a dozen miles above the ground. In the city of giants, the Aegis remain in perpetual unity, with minimal crime and nearly all in their own personal dreams. 

 

Their bulky frames and impossibly powerful muscles produce endless raw resources, where more careful machines cautiously sift through endless materials for goods that have survived their grasps. Food and other minerals find their place in endless stockpiles, their destiny being to be refined into more luxurious resources or into the endless stomachs of the behemoths.

 

The population of the Aegis lies only in the tens of millions, their needs for food to great to sustain any more than 100 million Aegis at a time. Nevertheless, the world still slowly gains population as the extreme life expectancies of centuries ensure that even with a low reproductive rate, the Aegis will be able to recover from nearly any event.

 

Not even another invasion by the Primatic could hope to extinguish the flame of Aegis. Not even Gods can slay them now!

 

In the greatest city of the world of Aegis, a great being sits in her throne. Almost twice as tall as her peers, she rules her world with a gentle but firm guiding hand. The entire world rests under her will, her dreams resulting in the world she lives in. The ruler of Aegis was centuries ago by the will of the people, but a grand revolution resulted in the monarch of today. The centuries that followed after the revolution was of great, endless progress. Rockets fly into space almost daily, the march towards space never ending.

 

She the Ruler of Aegis stands up tall, and goes onwards to her next task. One task soon to be done, and a billion to go.

 

The curtain falls.

  
  


**Centuries ago, the vile Xeno known as Geoloid assaulted the Holy world of Icor. The Xeno almost silenced us, but the Holy Eternal appeared out of the darkness, forcing them to retreat under Holy fire and light. And thus, our Gods brought us Eternal salvation.**

 

Icor’s surface has changed.

 

What was once endless greenery of boundless plains is now unending city meeting unending city. Where there are still marks of what Icor once was will soon be replaced with yet more boundless cityscape, a vast Eternal fleet of thousands floating high in Icor’s orbit.

 

After the Geoloid threat was deemed eliminated with the help of a Human from Solaris Gamma, the War of Eternity between the Geoloid and Eternal ceased before it had even begun again, and the Eternal Empire awoke from its slumber.

 

Icor was transformed into planetary cityscapes, housing nearly a trillion individuals for their services to the Eternal. The Eternal do not hide their disdain for Penthulan religious culture, but tolerate it as the Penthulan make excellent workers. Icor is not the only world of the Penthulan anymore, of course. The Penthulan people have expanded to many other worlds, primarily those the Eternal find insufficient for their needs.

 

The Penthulan were modified by the Eternal to expand their lifespans indefinitely, while also making them much more capable of adapting to more hostile environments. The subjectship of the Penthulan has eliminated their ability to purge the universe of lesser life forms, but will handle as long as the Eternal keep the Penthulan enlightened under their infinite truth.

 

The concept of a Penthulan ruling over other Penthulan was abolished long ago, their society answering to the Eternal, no one else able to order them around. Under the light of the Voidholder, the Penthulan people become everlasting.

 

And we slip back into the Between.

  
  


**CYCLES SINCE EVENT “GEOLOID INVASION”: 149713.92**

**CYCLES SINCE EVENT “LOSS OF MAKERS CITIES: 149670.94**

**VARIABLE** **_hatred_ ** **TOWARDS TARGET** **_geoloid_ ** **: ERROR! INTEGER OVERFLOW!**

**Never forget.** **_Never, ever Forgive._ **

 

The world of GETH, Noct remains a desolate wasteland of ruined cityscapes, with a single, colossal city covering a continent. The former cities of GETH’s creators remain in absolute ruin as the hallowed grounds remain untouched by GETH.

 

Multiple times a day rocket fly into space, all equipped with the necessary tools to build starships in space to further the goal of GETH; the extermination of the Geoloid.

 

In the depths of space, another colony supply ship flies off to the fifth world in orbit of GETH’s parent star. The world is cold and dark, in exception to the small cities that sprinkle the surface of the world lightly. It will take months to reach its destination, but time does not matter to a machine. If the end result is the same, why bother making something faster just yet?

 

Near the edge of the Solar System, a small starship with a small pulsing light as the engine continues to drift aimlessly, bearing the mark of GETH. GETH Drones on-board tinker with the engine, continuing to attempt to figure something out. Something beyond our understanding, perhaps. The ship slowly accelerates towards a small invisible fracture in our reality, invisible to all but the all-seeing eyes of the GETH’s scanners.

 

As the ship nears the boundary, it begins to redshift in color, before vanishing from reality in a flash of yellow vapor…

 

...In a distant star system, 23.79245 Lightyears away, a small pulsing light appears at the edge of the system, slightly blue-shifted in appearance, slowly accelerating towards a behemoth starship two Earths long, and an eighth wide. On its hull it is marked “Beholder”.

 

And the stars fade out of sight.

  
  


**In the depths of space, a world is in a dozen large pieces, the contents of its mantle spilling out into the abyss. There is nothing more to see, nothing more to know, nothing more to feel.**

 

A tiny, insignificant starcraft slowly ventures across the endless abyss in-between stars. It slowly drifts along a predetermined path, not an awake soul inside. A small computer lies in the bridge of the starship, calculating its trajectory towards a beautiful, shining world in the darkness. Deep inside the insulated hull of the craft, thousands of Jehact lie within cryogenic pods, awaiting their re-awakening.

 

On the only monitor in the entire ship, lies a single sentence. “TIME TO TARGET WORLD: 1923.92 CYCLES.”

 

And finally, at last, the world fades into the abyss.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It is done.
> 
> I’ve wanted to wrap up some of this story in a nice way, and this is the best I am able to do at the moment. I’m rather happy with how this turned out, but it definitely took a lot longer to find the will than I would have liked.
> 
> Nevertheless, I am content with this ending. If I forced myself to complete this, then it probably wouldn’t have been as good as it could have been.
> 
> Well, that’s all from this old story! Goodbye, Scion!


End file.
